The 5:2 Diet – one year on

The following post is brought to you by the lovely Becca who has written posts for us previously. You can check out her blog here: Friendly Film Fan and I'm sure she would be happy to chat about the 5:2 plan over on twitter.

Almost a year ago I sent in a post about this ‘revolutionary’ diet that I had pretty much fallen in love with after just two weeks. It has now been 48 weeks and I have no plans to ever stop it.

Since I was a teenager I have been unhappy with my weight, looks, hair… if it was superficial I hated it about myself. Previously I had minor success with short term weight loss, soup diets and the like, and I managed a good year of being small with concentrated diet and exercise.

These small successes were in vain however as I possess very little will power. VERY little. I manage six months before I get bored or lazy or hungry.

So when I found out about my friends amazing weight loss, as I talked about in my last post, the 5:2 diet seemed like a good one to at least try. Almost 12 months later I have already beaten my record on both weight loss and sustainability. I even managed to carry on over Christmas…

…Okay so I didn’t manage both days over Christmas but I at least felt the need for one day. Which is why I think I have been converted in my thinking for good; I physically felt the need for a 500 day. Christmas is a time when we excuse over-indulgence with those amazing three words ‘Tis the season’. So when I was nearing a full week passing without my having a 500 day I felt heavier than I ever have done at Christmas time. The day after I had a low calorie day I felt sharper, hungry for normal food, and more keen to get off the sofa and out in the fresh air.

Now I’m not saying this diet isn’t hard. I have days when I give up completely and consume my weight in chocolate. I also do not spend the calories on my five days ‘off’ particularly wisely – if I did I would be able to go down to a 6:1 ratio. Unfortunately my lack of sustainable willpower means I doubt I will be able to do this as I go a bit crazy on the biscuits or bread sometimes.

Back to the positives. Within about six months of this diet I was down to my ideal-ish weight, losing about a stone. This has fluctuated slightly, depending on the amount of alcohol I consume or baking I do, but I have a steady base weight which I am more than happy with.

I have no scientific proof of my blood glucose levels reducing or whether or not I have staved off Alzheimer’s, a couple of the reasons why I wanted to try it in the first place, which is a shame. I hope I am healthier in body and mind physically, I definitely feel it, and it would be an added bonus to the weight loss and confidence boost I have.

All through this I have been calling 5:2 a ‘diet’, but to me it is now normality. My consumer behaviour on my fasting days generally consists of drinking a couple of mugs of tea in the morning, a slim-a-soup mid-afternoon to combat the empty feeling I get, a zero calorie drink if I feel like I need an energy boost, and then a dinner of veggies and protein with some carbs.

This is the pattern I found works best for me. A lot of people split their calories across one big one small meal per day, but I find I get hungry if I eat something solid in the day and then my evening meal is completely unsatisfactory and I go to bed grumpy.

I have also managed to work out filling meals are possible under 400 calories, the key is less carbs more protein. Or couscous. Couscous and roasted veg is my default meal on a 500 day because you can have a lot for relatively few calories.

Sometimes I cheat and have 100/200 calories over my allotted number, but then what is life if we play by the rules 100% of the time? I am in the healthy BMI range and can fit into a size 12 with some room to spare for extra pizza slices on occasion. More than that, I’m happy.

If anyone out there has had the same success as I have, or been on this diet for longer, I would love to hear your thoughts. And if I’ve managed to inspire anyone out there to give this one a go, without using the lighter life version that Gemma has, then good luck and keep in touch!

LighterLife Fast - Losing weight over Christmas and the New Year

I've already spoken about my first month trying out LighterLife Fast on the blog but this post is going to focus on following the plan over Christmas and into the new year. I normally have a lot of anxiety around Christmas, worrying about putting weight on and trying to limit the damage or feeling guilty about what I eat. By following the LighterLife plan this year I didn't have any of those worries

I tend to put on around 5-7lbs over the festive period with all those parties and family meals, drinking Baileys like it's going out of fashion and not being able to go to the gym. This year I managed to maintain my weight over Christmas thanks to the products below. No miracle needed.

I'm sure you have all heard of the 5:2 diet, also known as the Fast diet – but just in case you haven't here is a quick overview. The idea behind the diet is that you eat normally 5 days a week and then fast the remaining two. On the fast days you quarter your calorie intake, it is advised that you eat 600 calories and get your RDA of key vitamins and minerals along with fibre and protein. The two fast days should not be taken consecutively.

I consumed just 600 calories 2 days a week by eating from the LighterLife Fast range which is available at Superdrug but ate what I liked for the other days. I didn't have to say no to anything, and didn't feel guilty after my third After Eight. I wouldn't say this is an attitude you should take all year round, you do need to eat moderately on your non 5:2 days but the easing of the festive food guilt was a great relief for me. I had to chose my 5:2 days wisely and plan ahead, I normally did them on a Monday when I was in work all day and had yoga in the evening so I was busy and not tempted by food. I also chose a Friday which is the day before my weigh in so I would want to stay on track to see the result I wanted at the scales. 

I followed the LighterLife Fast plan in the new year and managed to lose 4lbs in my first week when combining this with some yoga and a session or two at the gym. I'm hoping to lose a little more when I weigh in this week. I'm not sure it's something I could do when I'm away on holiday or on my birthday week but love this plan when I want to lose some weight quickly and with no fuss. As someone who has lost a lot of weight through plans like Weight Watcher's I've found this plan much easier to follow and his given me the results I want.

Have you tried the 5:2 plan or the LighterLife Fast products?

5:2 diet with LighterLife Fast

I've always had an issue with my weight and this blog documents my ups and downs regarding weight loss. Getting to grips with it in a way that easily fits in with my busy lifestyle is a constant struggle for me. Now that I'm older a combination living with a partner who likes rich foods, attending fun foodie blogging events and a baking hobby mean that I can pile the pounds on quickly if I have a hectic few weeks without noticing.
I've been following a diet plan on and off for about 6 years with some great results but counting points and weighing food can be very tiresome, I was really pleased to be chose to take part in a three month trial that will do away with any fuss or worry.

I'm sure you have all heard of the 5:2 diet, also known as the Fast diet – but just in case you haven't here is a quick overview. The idea behind the diet is that you eat normally 5 days a week (healthily, not scoffing too much) and then fast the remaining two. On the fast days you quarter your calorie intake, it is advised that you eat 600 calories and get your RDA of key vitamins and minerals along with fibre and protein. The two fast days should not be taken consecutively.

The reason I was drawn to the 5:2 diet was that dieting 2 days a week seems a lot easier to follow and fits in better with my lifestyle than tracking what I eat 7 days a week. It allows me to work out on the days that I am not fasting and to still enjoy eating out or unexpected drinks and not feel guilty about treats. I was a little worries before starting that I wouldn't be able to concentrate at work on 600cals a day and that I would feel tired. Trying to figure out what to eat for just 600 calories a day but feel full would be a headache but luckily there is now a solution – LighterLife Fast, which is now exclusively available at Superdrug.

On a fast day, it’s almost impossible to get all your recommended daily allowances (RDAs) of the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs if you were to prepare meals yourself. LighterLife Fastpacks are specially formulated nutritional food options that contain all the protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals required.

The idea behind LighterLife Fast is to make life easier on those fast days providing you with four LighterLife Fastpacks  for those 600 calorie days.

The new range starts at £7.99 for a box of four Fastpacks.  The Fastpack options include:

• Savoury meals such as Spaghetti Bolognese and pasta carbonara
• Porridge – the breakfast favourite!
• Four delicious shakes – vanilla, strawberry, banana and chocolate
• Four scrumptious meal bars in nut fudge, crispy peanut, cranberry & raspberry and toffee flavours

I chose porridge for breakfast, pasta cabonara for lunch and spaghetti bolognese for dinner. All options were tasty but smaller portions than I would normally eat. I found a few things really helped me with the plan, one of them was to add the water to the food a little at a time when cooking and stir a few times. They turned out much better using that method. I also added black pepper to the cabonara and a dash of cinnamon to the porridge to add to extra flavour.

The peanut bars were a great snack, they were large and filling and had a hint of chocolate. Very tasty!

I've been following the LighterLife Fast plan for two weeks now and I've been very pleased with the weight loss results:

Week 1: -2lbs

Weeks 2: -2.5lbs

I was pleasantly surprised with the results. As you can see from my instagram stream I really don't hold back on my non-fast days. I've gone out for afternoon tea, cooked a bonfire night feast and had cheese fondue and still manged to lose some weight. I've got two weeks until I go to Budapest and really want to lose another 4lbs before going so I'm going to be a little more restrained on my non-fast days to ensure the weight keeps on going down.

Have you ever tried the 5:2 diet? Would you consider then LighterLife Fast method of 5:2 fasting?

*LighterLife Fast has sent me a months worth of their Fastpacks to try and document my experience. 

Guest post - The Fast Diet: a two week convert

The following post is brought to you by the lovely Becca who has written posts for us previously. You can check out her blog here: Friendly Film Fan and I'm sure she would be happy to chat about the 5:2 plan over on twitter.

We’ve all done it, reduced our calories so low for a few days to shed a couple of extra pounds, put our bodies into starvation mode and then proceed to gain back those lost pounds plus more when we finally, finally, let ourselves eat carbs again.

I am guilty of this. I am also guilty of ‘being good’ and reducing my chocolate intake, only letting myself have alcohol or sweets once a week, going on soup diets and trying to simply exercise the weight away.

Needless to say I have failed at all of this (having no long-term will power) and I have never found the idea of going to a class appealing, despite it being one of the most successful and sustainable methods. The weight I need to lose is that pesky ‘last ten pounds’ that won’t shift no matter what, I needed something different that I could stick to forever – and I hope I have found it in the Fast Diet.

Now I am not writing this post having been on the Fast Diet for weeks or months and am now the svelte figure I always dreamed of being. No. I am two weeks into this thing and I already love it.

I know many people on this diet (also known as the 5:2 Diet or Intermittent Fasting), but thought it impractical and bad for you to spend two days a week severely lacking in calories. Then one of my best friends revealed she had been doing this intermittent fasting since the new year began and had lost over a stone, was feeling healthier and happier than before and found it, the most important word in the dieting dictionary, EASY.

Two weeks in and I have to agree. For those who don’t know the philosophy behind the Fast Diet I highly recommend reading the book by Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer or watching the Horizon film that Mosely made in 2012 called Eat, Fast and Live Longer. I have to say the science really convinced me.

It is based on the principal that humans are designed to fast – we would hunt our prey, gorge then go for weeks without eating again. Today we are so used to having three square meals a day and grazing in-between that when we skip a meal our brains panic. What? No food? We must be dying!

No, you’re not dying. You’re okay.

This diet does not advocate skipping whole days of food. What happens instead is you have a quarter of the calories you normally require (500 for women, 600 for men) split however you want on two, non-consecutive days a week. I have been experimenting with my allowance and had a sandwich for lunch and noodles for dinner the first day, a protein filled late breakfast with nothing else to eat (but lots of tea, Pepsi max and water) the second, and breakfast biscuits for lunch with a small amount of curry and rice for tea on my third.

I have found a Monday/Thursday routine is best because then I get at least two days between each ‘fast’ where I do not count any calories. Plus I don’t start work until 1pm on a Monday and it is quite easy to work through my late break (gaining some time off in lieu in the process).

The first day was pretty hellish for me, because all you can think about is food when you are restricting it. Plus I wasn’t exactly prepared food-wise, so my biggest piece of advice is to stock up on veg/salad so you can gorge yourself on something.

The second day was much better, and the third was almost easy.

The key thing I am loving about this change of eating habits is if I really want some chocolate (or other ‘bad’ thing) I can have it. It might be a day later than my craving but still, it’s not true denial if you can have it at some point. The Full Fat version. An entire tub of Ben and Jerry’s if I so desire.

I mentioned earlier that the science convinced me to pursue this diet (along with my friend’s fantastic results). By consuming low calories on intermittent days I effectively put my body into ‘repair mode’, NOT starvation. My body will begin to use the sugars in my blood to produce energy, moving on to the fat once it has burnt through all the sugars. This lowers my blood sugar levels; cutting the risk of getting diabetes. This is particularly nice to know as my Grandfather had type-two diabetes along with a plethora of other illnesses.

There are other long term benefits they believe will come from this type of diet, including cutting the risk of developing Alzheimer’s at a young age (i.e. before 80) and being healthy much longer into old age.

All pretty convincing stuff.

If anyone out there has an interest in this diet do read the book, it does not cost much and will open your eyes to a new way of living. I am looking forward to seeing my body change and my eating habits develop better patterns, with the odd tub of Ben and Jerry’s thrown in.

PS: another added bonus I only just realised this morning – my skin has started to clear up and my chin, normally my worst nightmare, is clear for the first time in years.