I am starting the 5:2 intermittent fast today (Mondays and Thursdays 500 calories, other days normal healthy food choices). I am also not weighing myself until Sunday.

The first thing I noticed this morning was relief about not fearing whether the scale went up or down a pound this morning.

My plan is to rely on Protein shakes today because they are easy to control and satisfy me.

I'm going to post my experiences in this thread. All are welcome to join me.

Alright ya'll... My life is uber stressful right now but I'm going to jump in and try this anyway. Maybe this will give me some much needed control in my life that I feel I'm lacking. I'm not in the green yet and have a fill on October.

I'm going to paraphrase what I've gotten from reading about the 5:2 Fast and you can correct me if this doesn't sound right. 5 days of 'normal' caloric intake/eating and 2 days of 500 calories or less. When fasting, try to stick with 18 hrs between meals. Most people do one meal a day on fast days generally at lunch or dinner. Sometimes, something small (a Protein shake) at lunch, then something larger in the evening.

Questions

1. I feel like I would need the most of the 500 calories on fast day for lunch, but I would also prefer to eat dinner with my husband at night. Should I suck it up and do a shake for lunch and the rest of my calories for dinner to keep some type of family normalcy? (Also note, I'm planning on talking my husband into doing this too so this might be a pointless question.)

2. I saw some arguments that intermittent fasting is more effective if done every other day instead of 5:2. Thoughts on this? I know it can really be whatever you want it to be, but I wanted to see if anyone had done it that way and found it easier or harder.

Anything else I should remember/know/keep in mind before I start doing this?

Also, I don't own a scale so I won't even know if this is working...yikes! I do have one a work though that I might be able to jump on.

#1..This is how I do it but I do it 3 days a week so it's a 4:3 fast for me.

#2..Professor Kristen Varady based her studies on alternate day fasting and it works faster and you can lose more this way simply because you're eating fewer calories per week/month. But it can also be the hardest to maintain long term.

If you didn't watch these two videos, here they are again:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzkVmXe9NMU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1jwtFeGvk I haven't posted this one before but it's a video by Vicki Edgson a nutritionist.

Thanks tmf! I will try to watch these tonight when I get home.

umm metabolic circuit class on fast day.. not sure that was a good idea. i could pretty much chew my arm off .. but i'm going to wait until i get home before i eat the rest of my calories for the day.....

This has been an interesting experiment for me. I have a history of being very restrictive and of course tried every version of every diet out there prior to WLS at which point I declared myself out of the diet game. What's worked well for me is to eat when I'm hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. That's my one little "rule" for this banded life and actually it's much harder to do the former than the latter. Of course I'd always bounce back again -- Yo-Yo-Yo is my middle name. For these reasons, this 5:2 brought up a lot of old "diet" behavior for me. The old "better have it now" and "I'm going to reward myself" instincts came roaring back. It makes sense to me that I could not resist trying a new diet -- because that's what I always did. I think if I could have approached this as lifestyle rather than the D word then I could perhaps have skated through and gotten the metabolic benefits without screwing with my head. But there it is, we all have our own histories, head games, etc. So I ended up going back to my regularly scheduled programming. Eat when I'm hungry. That's important for me. I hesitated to report out because I want to encourage you all to go, go, go -- but we all know how different our bodies our. And the brains, geez. There's a committee in my head sometimes that I have to shut down. I could tell my the self-talk over the 5:2 prep and counting, etc. that it's just not the right thing for me right now.

This has been an interesting experiment for me. I have a history of being very restrictive and of course tried every version of every diet out there prior to WLS at which point I declared myself out of the diet game. What's worked well for me is to eat when I'm hungry and not eat when I'm not hungry. That's my one little "rule" for this banded life and actually it's much harder to do the former than the latter. Of course I'd always bounce back again -- Yo-Yo-Yo is my middle name. For these reasons, this 5:2 brought up a lot of old "diet" behavior for me. The old "better have it now" and "I'm going to reward myself" instincts came roaring back. It makes sense to me that I could not resist trying a new diet -- because that's what I always did. I think if I could have approached this as lifestyle rather than the D word then I could perhaps have skated through and gotten the metabolic benefits without screwing with my head. But there it is, we all have our own histories, head games, etc. So I ended up going back to my regularly scheduled programming. Eat when I'm hungry. That's important for me. I hesitated to report out because I want to encourage you all to go, go, go -- but we all know how different our bodies our. And the brains, geez. There's a committee in my head sometimes that I have to shut down. I could tell my the self-talk over the 5:2 prep and counting, etc. that it's just not the right thing for me right now.

I actually think it's good that you have come to this realisation. I mean you are listening to your body and doing what works for you.

However... The mental games can be torture and while physically you can tell what your body needs you sometimes do have to try and quite the clutter occurring upstairs... I don't mean to be forward or offensive in anyway, but considering a therapist might be an option?

@@Bandista, always listen to your body. You're my inspiration. If 5:2 is triggering old thought processes then it's not the right method for you. But you know that already. ????

Today was Weird with a capital W. I was very stressed out during and after a phone call today and it was bizarre. The phone call used up my entire lunch hour so I couldn't eat my 500 calorie meal then. I had zero hunger either. Kinda spooky. I came home and at 5:30 heated up lean pot roast for dinner and a handful of raw green Beans to munch while it reheated. I only managed to eat 2/3 of the 4 oz of meat and got stuck. Ugh. My band was clearly too tight for the pot roast. I know it's a factor of having eaten nothing all day and the high stress level I had. Slimed, spit up, ugh. Not too much but still. Ironically I'm still not hungry. Last week on Monday night I was dreaming of Tuesday's food. Today nah.

I talked to people tonight to get some of the stress out of my system and I also drove my car with the radio blasting and rock music playing. That always helps.

At any rate, it is really clear to me that the tiny fill I got in September may not be super restrictive most days, but on stressful days or low food volume days it can be quite restrictive. I'm not going to get a fill in October. This may actually be my green zone.

I suppose I should sound happier about that. But realizing it by means of a stuck episode kinda dulls the thrill a bit. Lol.

I'm kind of hoping I wake up really hungry tomorrow. Did I say that?

Tuesday morning. Oh yeah, I'm hungry. ????

Can you have coffee on fast days? If you can, then technically I can start my fast now.

I haven't eaten since 7 pm last night and I don't plan on eating until lunch at around 11:30 anyway.... Might do soup and salad for lunch...or should I do something more substantial?

Can you have coffee on fast days? If you can, then technically I can start my fast now.

I haven't eaten since 7 pm last night and I don't plan on eating until lunch at around 11:30 anyway.... Might do soup and salad for lunch...or should I do something more substantial?

I have my coffee on all days, lol. As for soup and salad, I would probably try for a little more Protein myself, but try it your way, as long as its healthy.

Sandy's right. Soup and salads are slider foods with very little Protein to help you stay satisfied for a long time. Dense Proteins and dense veggies will help you stay satisfied till dinner where sliders will only make you want food again in 2 hours.

I usually have a Protein shake for lunch. Still kindof a slider food but the extra protein stays with me. I might top it off with a hard boiled egg or slice of deli turkey. Then I have a 300-400 cal dinner with lots of dense protein like salmon, chicken or low fat hamburger.

During the fasting phase(usually 12-18 hrs), you should refrain from having any calorie containing foods. coffee with no sugar or cream is perfect and keeps your metabolism up. Just stay away from anything with calories.

I have cream in my coffee. Not advising it but that's what I am doing.

Sandy, it wouldn't be called a fast if you're allowed to eat all day, even if it's 500 cals over the day. There are scientific reasons why Mosley suggests we fast through the day till dinner.

Here's Mosley addressing when to eat about 45 seconds in and goes to 2:20 mins.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r8OpT11RjE&index=2&list=PLNJV9yr8AXU4Nt41D6kZ2x1_CylRMAQCL

And this one 3:55 in explains the fast:

5:2 Diet Partner For people too lazy to read the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Aj6hRYg4A

I'm sure we could lose weight if we stretched it out as you say but you won't get the healing effects of the fast. And I agree with you, speaking from my own personal experience, once I start eating, the eating demons can take over your mind and I end up grazing from noon to dinner if I try to spread the 600 cals over the entire day.

I just saw this. So my response is based on Dr Varadys study and her research on the alternate day dieting and it shows that the metabolic advantage to the alternate day dieting is from the weight loss itself. Since I'm on maintenance, that's not an issue. For maintenance on the every other day diet, I could also use the everyother day diet recommendation and increase my calories on my "fast days". I've just chosen to continue the 5:2 cuz it works for me. There are lots of variations of this diet and like you, I choose not to mess with my weekends with the diet. Yesteday, I did fast til 6pm and had supper and was fine. I may try that again and see how I like it. She does say on the everyother day diet, it takes about 10 days to adjust to it. I've been doing the 5:2 for about a month. Hubby is doing 1000 calories those days (mostly cuz I can't get him to count calories.) But it seems to be helping him maintain his weight loss pretty good.

@@phil2912 no offense at all, thanks so much! Summer 2013 when I started my research and joined this forum I decided to get a therapist to go through the process with me. I got a lot out of our meetings -- we worked on triggers and how to be very specific about my responses, no glossing over with my usual, "well I'm stressed so I eat." This was a tedious process but I discovered some interesting things. I work from home and the fridge is nearby if I am "prepping" for a conference call or something like that. Or the ways I would eat if I was really just procrastinating or needing to stand up from my work station and walk around a little. Turns out there are other places to walk besides to the kitchen! So I really appreciate your suggestion. I did talk with two different friends yesterday about feeling like I was having some old f*&^%ed-up thinking going on and that was very helpful. And this forum -- the writing it out and hearing others' perspectives, reading similar stories and how we are the same and different, etc. I haven't decided whether to call this therapist and make an appointment. This is silly, but the building he's in is above an old newspaper and the dampness and mildew smell throw me off. But he is a good guy and it is probably a good idea to check in with myself in that setting. Besides, he'll be delighted to see how well I'm doing, how happy I feel overall. Those early warning signs of limiting myself in the wrong ways were a good wake-up call for me. I don't ever want to go the other way -- I love having a good relationship with food and with my body. Thanks for your post!

@@JustWatchMe glad you woke up hungry, that we can welcome the sensation of hunger. I swear I didn't even know what it felt like a year ago! And I love the idea of the 5:2 -- just not for me right now. Sorry about your stuck episode. Like you, my band is very responsive to stress. Between that and the mini-fast it makes sense that you'd be tight -- and like me with the asparagus you may have munched on your healthy veggies too quickly. I sort of miss those days of massive plates of vegetables, lol. Now a little dab will do me.

Have a great day, every one!

Yes, I'm thinking the raw green Beans may have been a bad start to a small meal.

Edited September 16, 201411 yr by JustWatchMe

There is a rumor that a drug rep is bringing my office lunch today... if there are no good choice then I'll go to the cafeteria and get something more substantial other than soup and salad. Thanks!