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5:2 Fasting Diet

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7lb claimer
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5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by 7lb claimer »

Has anyone tried this diet? Eat normally for five days and restrict to 600 calories on the other two. Doesn't seem too difficult and will give it a go as I like food too much and prefer to keep my muscles in hardly ever used condition. Starting today and will report back.

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unc.si.
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by unc.si. »

Been discussed on here before. Not for me (don't really agree with any fad diets), but think that some people have had some success with it.

How much do you want to lose?

(7lb?)

7lb claimer
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by 7lb claimer »

More like 7x7 :D Can't eat just one biscuit unless the word packet is included in the sentence :(

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murf
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by murf »

7lb claimer wrote:More like 7x7 :D Can't eat just one biscuit unless the word packet is included in the sentence :(
I see even the 5 days of only eating 'normally' are going to be a struggle here.....

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crispybits
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by crispybits »

I did it for a while (tho I didnt have 600 calories on my off days, I had 0) and it has it's merits but I'm not sure that one of them is that it's any easier to lose weight that way than it would be by sensible clean eating with a "cheat within moderation" day once a week. I found it was more that I got more used to being able to tell what signals my body was sending me (stopped mistaking thirst for hunger for example) and learned how little food I actually needed to live on (which helped with things like portion control on my normal days)

It's definitely worth doing, at least in the short term, but it's not a silver bullet miracle cure for your beer belly :wink:

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Achiles74
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by Achiles74 »

Doesnt the body go into starvation mode which negates the benefits of this diet?

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crispybits
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by crispybits »

Not if you keep the fasts under 36 hours tops - starvation mode doesn't kick in until sometime between 44 and 48 hours so a 24 hour fast (or even 36 if you go from dinner day 1 to breakfast day 3) won't kick you into starvation mode.

The main danger is that you'll break the fast by over-eating and undo a lot of the calorific defecit the fast built up. When you haven't eaten for 24 hours and you're very hungry it's even more difficult than normal to stick to a sensible portion size.

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Groomyd
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by Groomyd »

Friend of mine lost a lot of weight doing the 5/2 thang - but did 600 or so calories on bus two days rather than zero

He's a paramedic so having blood sugar problems on a zero calorie effort not a good idea

I very much doubt the science behind a 5/2 diet - but it works for some simply because you eat less food in total - the added benefit is that you take better care if yourself and food intake during the "5" days too just because you are making an effort

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john89
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Re: 5:2 Fasting Diet

Post by john89 »

It seems that everybody wants to lose weight. But when most people say they want to lose weight, what they really mean is they want to lose weight without altering their current lifestyle. They want to lose weight without changing the foods that they eat, or without getting up off the couch, turning off the television, and engaging in regular physical exercise. Not surprisingly, there is a huge market that offers shortcuts to weight loss through cosmetic surgery, diet pills, nutritional supplements, and various diets -- such as the Atkins Diet.
There's a growing group of people who leap from one weight loss fad to another, in search of the one thing that's going to finally help them lose weight without having to alter the foods they eat. People don't want to give up their soft drinks; they don't want to give up pizza, and ice cream, and fast food. And they sure don't have time to go out and exercise on a regular basis. So the shortcuts market is absolutely astounding -- $9.4 billion was spent last year on cosmetic surgery alone, and hundreds of millions more were spent on weight loss pills, fat burning nutritional supplements, and low-carb foods. It's a tremendous market, and the public seems to be more than willing to keep spending money on these items, even though the real answers are to be found in something entirely different.

The reality of weight loss is that there are no shortcuts! You can have cosmetic surgery to remove fat from your thighs, or the back of your arms, but if you continue eating the way you've been eating, your body will just deposit the fat somewhere else on your body -- usually in a place that looks even stranger than when it was on your hips. Even if the cosmetic surgery works out for you, it doesn't alter your blood chemistry, your cardiovascular health, or your level of physical fitness. Meaning that you are just as unhealthy after the surgery as you were before, even though you may physically show less body fat. Something similar is true with foods as well. Many people continue to eat a diet high in refined carbohydrates, added sugars, and obesity-promoting ingredients, such as high-fructose corn syrup. Then in an attempt to lose weight, they will take a couple of weight loss pills each day, and hope that those pills will some how counteract the entire day of eating unhealthy, obesity-promoting foods. It just doesn't work this way.

If you really want to lose weight, you've got to do two things. First you have to avoid foods that promote obesity and weight-gain. These are the foods that are consumed by the vast majority of Americans, and are the ones that are the most popular in grocery stores and restaurants. Any food that's processed or manufactured is very likely to promote obesity, or some other chronic disease. Foods made with refined white flour or refined sugar, for example, will undoubtedly alter your blood sugar levels and tell your body to start storing fat. Foods high in saturated animal fats, such as red meat, or foods that are high in hydrogenated oils, like margarine or shortening, will also pack on the body fat, and harm your cardio-vascular health at the same time. Achieving a healthy body weight absolutely requires taking these foods out of your diet for the rest of your life. You can have either soft drinks and processed foods, or a healthy body weight -- but not both. In fact, much of the foods available today in the national food supply are simply incompatible with a healthy body weight, no matter how much surgery you undergo, and no matter how many weight loss supplements you attempt to take.

The other part of the equation here is physical exercise. The human body simply won't shed excess body fat without engaging in regular physical exercise. Physical exercise gives you a much higher metabolism; it helps you burn calories, even while you're sitting or sleeping. It also increases your lean body mass -- especially when you engage in strength training -- and that results in even more calories being burned when you are at rest. Physical exercise, in fact, modifies your body chemistry in a way that helps your body better use refined foods such as breads or pasta. When you eat those foods without engaging in physical exercise, you're automatically going to add weight. But when you have an extremely fit body that engages in regular exercise, such as jogging, swimming, walking, or biking, you can get away with eating a few processed foods. But still you have to limit your intake of processed foods if you want to maintain a healthy body weight.

In my own case, I engage in rather vigorous physical exercise several times per week, typically putting in 10 hours of exercise each week. And even then, I don't allow myself to eat any breads or pasta or refined carbohydrates of any kind. I don't consume breakfast cereals; I don't drink fruit-drinks or consume soft drinks. And what I've found is that if I eat a piece of bread or have a sandwich, then those refined carbohydrates alter my blood sugar in a way that makes me extremely hungry three or four hours later. If I had eaten a high protein meal, or a meal high in healthy fats and fibers, I wouldn't be hungry so quickly. So it is these processed foods that are in fact causing the obesity in the first place. And consuming diet pills or weight loss supplements simply isn't the answer to long-term weight loss. The answer is to look at your lifestyle, examine what you're doing wrong that needs to be corrected, and then have the courage to make the changes that will bring you into a healthy body weight and keep you there for life. :D

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