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5:2 diet?
Has anyone tried it? I have heard good things about this diet in terms of weight loss and health benefits. Interested to hear and experiences of poling combined with this. My weight is slowly creeping up and up and for no obvious reason. I can’t say this is purely muscle gain as last summers clothes are tight on me. Only change is I have gone vegetarian in the last six months and mostly cut out diary which I thought would have helped lose weight not gain!
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5 Replies
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I gain weight as a vegetarian and vegan. It’s all the carbs. I lost weight going somewhat lower carb and counting calories. I’m weary of any diet that restricts you to that low of calories. Not to mention, you’d be likely to gorge cuz you’re starving yourself.
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Yes of course, all the carbs in Veg are bound to cause weight gain!
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I’ve tried the 5:2 for a few weeks, and lots of my friends and workmates do it (also, we’re all scientists, so we’re pretty skeptical on most fad diets!).
I liked it – I couldn’t do a 500-calorie day when I wanted to exercise though (I think that’d be asking for trouble) and as I pole 3 days a week I just couldn’t fit it in, otherwise I’d have liked to have kept it up. I didn’t want to lose weight, but I wanted to give my blood sugar a chance to properly go down and restart again, which this diet does.
My friends on it all lost a few kilos and then they stabilised – but they were all only a few kg overweight to start with. My boss lost 15 kg on it over 4 months! I think this is good for slow, consistent weight loss, which is what you want really, so it’s fat and not muscle or water loss.
On the “diet days” you really have to plan though – you want to eat LOADS of salady type things, so you really make the most of your 500 calories, you can’t just have a banana and then nothing for 12 hours. If you plan well you don’t feel too hungry, just keep yourself busy. I found that the next day I was a bit hungrier than usual, not much though, and I did feel amazing the day after – like my whole body had been turbo-charged and wasn’t the slightest bit sluggish.
Hope that helps! I think it’s one of the rare fad diets that are actually good for you, but obviously you have to be sensible – don’t pole on a diet day, drink LOTS of water and fill up on things like celery, and eat fairly well the rest of the time too. Give it a shot, a few weeks can’t hurt!
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Thanks for your reply, very interesting to hear first hand experience! The other health benefits are interesting, apparently there was a panorama programme which went into this in great detail which I should try and find. I work in operating theatre so work alongside surgeons and anaesthetists and have been surprised by how many are on it (generally on days off), which I also find credible. What have I got to loose right?
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I used it to kick start a massive overhaul of my diet and fitness a year ago. Combined it with low carb clean eating which worked very well and lost 35lb and became lean. I found though that fast days were too miserable and so switched to 16:8 every day – eating within an 8 hour window and 16 hours not eating (including sleep time).
Basically working out first thing fasting, then protein/veg brunch and early dinner of protein and veg and good fat – tracked what I ate on My Fitness Pal.
I think for some people especially women, shorter fasts can work better but we are all different. I think the science stacks up.
Mumsnet has an excellent 5:2/fasting forum which I found invaluable (and a low carb forum too – you don’t have to be a parent to use the site)
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/fasting_diet
Good luck!
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