I lost 3 stone last year using the 5:2 diet.
As some background I weighted 84ish KG at my peak, about 82 when I started the diet in May and by Christmas I was down to to 62.
I didn't believe it would work, or be easy. I was wrong on both counts.
Below is an extract I sent a friend who had asked me about it, (and who has now also done it successfully)
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Hi
As promised here is the diet info:
This partly where the diet came from. Worth a watch, as it’s only and hour and covers some of the potential other health benefits of fasting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc
Then I read this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Weight-B ... 1409146693
There are other books on it, and that may not be the best, but it was the one the friend who did the diet and I took inspiration from read. It’s pretty quick easy read.
As for the diet itself, if you want to try it, am happy to help.
They key really is finding what works for you. I started off eating about 100 calories for lunch and about 450 for dinner. Now I skip lunch as it does’t bother me and just have an nice meal. But some of the people at work find 3x 200 calorie small meals are better. Others have a big lunch or breakfast and a small dinner.
I also find that coffee helps, so I have 3 macchiato’s during the day. (About 8 calories a cup) and a fair bit of water. I drink sparkling as it feels like you’re having something more substantial.
I’ve found some really great recipes, that I’ll share with you . I’ve modified them as I’ve gone along (e.g. some are only 200 calories, and so I’ve doubled them, or added more veg) . I both enjoy the cooking and the process (you need a decent scale, as in the beginning you need to weigh things quite specifically till you know the recipe well.). So I land up focussing on cooking a nice meal, which I then enjoy and don’t go to bed hungry.
Generally with a bit of determination you can do a fast day. I found the first day really tough. The first couple of weeks challenging but doable. Now I barely notice a fast day. I’m a bit more tired than normal between about 4 & 7pm, but beyond that find. And I feel I have more energy on the rest of the weeks.
I’ve done more of a 4:3 as I wanted to get to my target weight quicker (as I was competing with a friend as a motivation), but there is no need to do this. 5:2 is just fine.
Also being very data driven, I’ve got my own spreadsheet that I track a lot of trends (e.g. I take a trimmean of my weight over 7 days and look at that not the individual days). If you want, am more than happy to share that too.
I lost 3 stone last year using the 5:2 diet.
As some background I weighted 84ish KG at my peak, about 82 when I started the diet in May and by Christmas I was down to to 62.
I didn't believe it would work, or be easy. I was wrong on both counts.
Below is an extract I sent a friend who had asked me about it, (and who has now also done it successfully)
---
Hi
As promised here is the diet info:
This partly where the diet came from. Worth a watch, as it’s only and hour and covers some of the potential other health benefits of fasting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc
Then I read this.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Feast-Weight-Boost-Transform-Health/dp/1409146693
There are other books on it, and that may not be the best, but it was the one the friend who did the diet and I took inspiration from read. It’s pretty quick easy read.
As for the diet itself, if you want to try it, am happy to help.
They key really is finding what works for you. I started off eating about 100 calories for lunch and about 450 for dinner. Now I skip lunch as it does’t bother me and just have an nice meal. But some of the people at work find 3x 200 calorie small meals are better. Others have a big lunch or breakfast and a small dinner.
I also find that coffee helps, so I have 3 macchiato’s during the day. (About 8 calories a cup) and a fair bit of water. I drink sparkling as it feels like you’re having something more substantial.
I’ve found some really great recipes, that I’ll share with you . I’ve modified them as I’ve gone along (e.g. some are only 200 calories, and so I’ve doubled them, or added more veg) . I both enjoy the cooking and the process (you need a decent scale, as in the beginning you need to weigh things quite specifically till you know the recipe well.). So I land up focussing on cooking a nice meal, which I then enjoy and don’t go to bed hungry.
Generally with a bit of determination you can do a fast day. I found the first day really tough. The first couple of weeks challenging but doable. Now I barely notice a fast day. I’m a bit more tired than normal between about 4 & 7pm, but beyond that find. And I feel I have more energy on the rest of the weeks.
I’ve done more of a 4:3 as I wanted to get to my target weight quicker (as I was competing with a friend as a motivation), but there is no need to do this. 5:2 is just fine.
Also being very data driven, I’ve got my own spreadsheet that I track a lot of trends (e.g. I take a trimmean of my weight over 7 days and look at that not the individual days). If you want, am more than happy to share that too.
