Giving the 5:2 diet a try - got nothing to lose!!!

H

hayley86

Full Member
Hi,

Well so far I have been following (loosely) the Rosemary Conley diet. I don't find it too bad, not too restrictive (though trying to find a dinner for 500 calories or less every day of the week isn't the easiest, especially without planning). However, I am not losing as much weight as I'd hoped. I know losing an average of 2lbs a week is a good, sustainable weight loss, but my wedding dress fitting is in 9 weeks and 2 days!! I really really need to lose 3inches off my hips (minimum!!)

My partner and I have heard things about the 5:2 diet in the press lately, so I had a quick google in the week, and bought the book on Thursday. Read most of it this weekend, and I am ready to start my first fast day tomorrow!!

I am hoping that being so restrictive 2 days a week, will help me to eat a little healthier for the rest of the week. i.e. less snacking! I'm sure that is my main downfall - either skipping meals and then grabbing a biscuit or two, or having little sweet treats on top of my 3 main meals. I have sat down lately and realised how much my life revolves around food, and I don't want it to be like that.

Am also hoping that I will lose quite a bit of weight like this. A few months ago I had to go dairy free for a while when I was breast-feeding. All I cut out was dairy, but because its in pretty much all snacks in one way or another, I ended up cutting out the snacking completely. I still ate what I wanted for my main meals (provided it was dairy free) - including having peanut butter on bagels etc for breakfast/lunch. At one point I lost 7lbs in 2 weeks. Now I know I was still breast-feeding at the time, but I was also not doing any exercise at all.

Got to re-train my brain I think. Food is the solution for hunger, not boredom!!
If I want to treat myself from now on I will try to have more bubble baths etc, than bars of chocolate!!

I'm going to take all my measurements tomorrow; inches, weight, BMI and blood sugar levels (studies have shown that Intermittent Fasting can reduce insulin and blood sugar levels - something I am particularly interested in as I have PCOS).

Will put them all on here in the morning!

x
 
Good luck, I'm really intrigued by this diet hope it works for you!
 
Thanks!

So, end of day 1. I feel absolutely fine! No headaches or anything, feel no more tired than I normally would at this time of day/night.

I decided to go as long as I could without food. Had nothing but squash until about 5pm when I had a cup of tea, and then had my dinner at 7:30pm.
I had a low calorie ready meal (chicken enchiladas from Asda's under 400 calorie range - lovely!) with frozen mixed veg. In total I have had 490 calories today.

I even managed to do 20mins of free step earlier on-had planned to do 30mins, and probably could have easily managed it, but baby woke up.

Feeling positive about tomorrow -its technically a feast day, but I'm not going to overdo it! Most importantly I am going to try not to snack between meals, except perhaps a cup of tea or two!
Going to try and do more exercise tomorrow
 
so, had 2 feast days. another fast day tomorrow.
I've tried to be quite good for these 2 days, but I was at a relatives today so the food choices weren't entirely up to me, and as I wasn't preparing the meals, I have no idea how many calories were in it! Hopefully these past two days haven't ruined my efforts on Monday. though I don't feel as hungry as I used to, and have therefore naturally gone for smaller portions (than I would have before - who knows if they are small enough!).

Must remember to drink enough tomorrow-been slightly headachy this week. though I don't think thats anything to do with the diet, just me not having my 8 glasses of water a day (sometimes only about 4!).
 
Thanks - I'm finding it very easy to follow so far - it's really quite versatile. I had planned yesterday to be a fast day, but felt quite ill, so I stopped. (though please understand that I felt ill because I am coming down with a virus or something, not because of the diet!). Hopefully after a couple of days rest I will be able to have another fast day without feeling too rubbish - fingers crossed I can manage a fast day tomorrow.

For today I plan to spend the day in bed, and keep my fluids up by drinking tea instead of hot chocolate!

I do currently weigh less than at the start of the week, but am still hoping to lose a bit more by Monday morning
 
A little update (haven't been so good on this weight loss diary to date. whoops, but had a lot going on at home with OH being made redundant).

So far I am finding this diet so easy to follow! Some days are harder than others. I ended up fasting on Saturday last week, due to being ill on the Thursday. Got through that fine-in fact when dinner time came I wasn't even that hungry. Didn't have the best dinner though-had a take-away round my mum and dads as it was my dads birthday. But I tried to be good and I had a chicken shish instead of meat and chips. so basically my dinner was chicken, salad and a pitta bread! Don't know how much I ate, possibly too much. perhaps I would have had a bigger weekly weight loss if I had had a homecooked meal that night, and had weighed out all of my ingredients. but hey I still lost weight!!

I'm quite happy with that weight loss actually. Considering in that week I had a takeaway, a full roast dinner (turkey, pigs in blankets, stuffing and yorkshire), chocolate, full fat hot chocolate with squirtycream and marshmallows, peanut butter on toast, burger and chips......not the healthiest of diets and I have still lost weight!

So easy to follow as well. I can eat what I like 5 days a week without giving it any thought, and just have to be really strong 2 days a week. I prefer to have nothing all day and just have one low calorie dinner. I find this easy to follow as I know when I wake up in the morning that I am not eating until dinner time, and I will have already planned my dinner the night before. So I just do other things and don't think about food at all until 7pm. if I start to feel really hungry (happened this tuesday on a fast day) I allow myself a cup of tea or some chewing gum.

Now I only have 7weeks and 6days until my dress fitting, so I am going to be a little stricter with myself than I would if I didn't have a deadline and I was happy to lose just 1-2lb a week. I am still going to stick to the fast for 2 days, "feast" for 5 days principle, but I am going to be really strict with myself about how healthy I am on feast days. I am not going to allow myself any chocolate (surely I can do this for just 8 weeks?) cakes, biscuits etc. I will just have 3 sensible, healthy meals. And I shall exercise every god damned day if it kills me!
 
Well done. I am trying out a fast day as a trail today as it is suppose to give any weight loss a boost. I haven't eaten since dinner last night (about 7:30) and plan to have nothing except water until a snack tonight then back to normal eating tomorrow. Oh have had a weak green tea too.
 
A little update - lost 2.5lb this week. Really happy with that. Was worried I would have put on weight this morning, especially considering how late I ate dinner last night (LO was ill and we were at emergency Drs and hospital).

Only managed exercise on Monday and Tuesday last week - will try and do more this week. I need to start a bit of strength training as well as cardio. Desperately want to tone up my arms before the big day!
 
Hi,

I'm going for my measurements done in 3 weeks to decide which size to order my dress in so I really need to be good until then to try lose as many inches as poss.

I've been doing SW but thinking of trying out the 5:2 diet for a few weeks. If I could lose 1/2 stone that'd be great :)

Do you calorie count on the 'feast' days or you just careful?

I'm doing 30DS every morning at the mo as well as PT session once a week and Boxercise twice. Ill do anything to get rid of my back fat and tone my arms!
 
If you're really good I can't see why you wouldn't be able to lose half a stone in 3 weeks.

I count calories and keep track of what I am eating on feast days, but at the moment I don't keep to a certain figure. I eat what I want and generally eat between 1400 and 2000 calories on a feast day. Seems to be working for me!

I've dabbled with 30ds before too. Going to be getting back on that bandwagon next week (having a break from hard exercise this week as little girl is sick and I'm shattered. Plus we also have guests this weekend, and are going out for dinner etc).

Following the way I am has led me to lose a steady 2lb a week so far, and I have still had chocolate, cakes and other high fat foods. I'm going to be extra strict as of Monday (will only have 6weeks till my dress fitting then). I'm going to cut wheat out of my diet from then till the wedding (so 14 weeks) to help me lose a bit of the bloat as well as the weight. It helps to cut out most of the bad foods too!

I'll see how I get on with that as my one rule (as well as fasting for 2 days, obviously)

Good luck with your weight loss, MrsB2B!
 
Would it work combining it with MFP as well on 1200 cals for the feast days and 2 days of 500 or would I be eating too few cals to get a good loss?
 
What do you use MFP for; your calorie counting? Or do you mean something other than My fitness pal?
I'd suggest you try it that way for a week, and see how it goes. Whether you feel fine, how much weight you lose etc. It might not be quite enough calories to effectively lose weight, but maybe you could mix it up a little. Say have 2days at 500 cals, 3 days at 1200 and 2 days at about 1800. That might keep your metabolism higher.
 
My friend used MFP and lost a couple of stone for her wedding by doing 1200 cals a day. I've been doing SW but struggled with quick loss this time.
Been averaging 1.5lb which isn't enough for me at the mo. I want the scales to go down faster! Lol.
Weigh day is Mondays so might carry on as I am this week and start calorie counting and 5:2 on Monday and see how I go.
Cheers for the help!!
 
Do you think the fasting works if you do it for part of the day or does it need to be a whole 24hours?
 
skinnybride2013 said:
Do you think the fasting works if you do it for part of the day or does it need to be a whole 24hours?
Click to expand...

It's my first week on the diet. WI on Monday and I've been having a light lunch (cup a soup or small plain salad) which has been around 70cals and having a bigger meal in the evening.
Ill let you know of Monday if its worked or not.
How have you been getting on?
 
Well, in the book "The Fast Diet" by Dr Michael Moseley (who did the horizons programme), they actually suggest splitting your calories between breakfast and dinner, and having about 12hrs between them. Other research studies into intermittent fasting involve the subjects having one meal a day, normally around lunchtime.

From the research shown in the fast diet book, it looks as though the longer you can fast for (say 12, 16 or 24hrs with nothing but water or black tea/coffee), the more health benefits you experience. However, from a weight loss point of view, the main thing is that you only have 500 calories in a 24 period.

The Fast Diet is actually quite flexible. You can experiment to see what works for you. I personally try to go for as long as possible with no food - some days I have managed to have nothing but squash, and maybe one or 2 cups of tea, until my dinner at about 6/7pm. Seen as I would have had a glass of milk or hot chocolate just before bed the previous night, that means I fast for a maximum of about 20hrs. However some days I haven't been able to make to dinner time with nothing to eat, so I have had a small snack/light lunch between 2 and 4pm, and then dinner about 7-8pm.

Following the diet like this worked for me for the first 2 weeks (I didn't do so well last week - sick child and sleep deprivation meant I just didn't have the energy to fast).
 
Hi all,

Just as an update I STS the first week as went a bit mad over the weekend but lost 3lb this week. Hoping for another good loss on Sat.
 
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