What's The Fuss About The 5:2 Diet
A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that she has started the 5:2 diet and after a couple of months had lost weight and was feeling great. It's easy and pretty pain-free, she said. You just restrict yourself to 500 calories on a fast day and the other five days you eat what you want. I wanted to find out more.
A bit of googling/research led me to Michael Mosely's TV programme, which explored how restricting calories can improve health and be an indicator of increased life-span. At the end of the programme he tested his blood profile for heart risks, and after a couple of months he had more-or-less reduced all the main risk factors from high to normal. It's really worth watching if you can get hold of a copy.
Health Matters
I've been on a meat-free diet for years now, and thought I was pretty healthy; so it was a big surprise when I had a mini-stroke (TIA) a couple of years ago. I don't have most of the risks associated with heart disease, but nevertheless had a stroke. My cholesterol was up above 6.0, and so I was started on statins. This diet offers the possibility that I may be able to get off statins, which is a worthwhile goal for me.
Vegetarian/Meat-Free Meals
I've had a look at the books out there on this diet, and the recipes seem pretty much meat biased. So it's time to change that ans share my experiences, recipes, ideas highs and lows. This blog will interest anyone wanting to lose weight or improve their health risks. For me, food has to look good and taste great. So welcome to my blog, I hope you find it informative and fun.
Hello Lars - Interesting to read your blog and I shall drop in on it again soon.. I'm on a plateau now (lost 9 lbs in the first 3 weeks and just a couple a week now) but carrying on with the diet because it makes me feel good and suits me well. Being able to eat food I've denied myself for years on the 'off days' makes me realise I don't really want them anyway. So it's changed my whole relationship to food. And I like the feeling of being hungry for a change! I have small muesli with skimmed milk for breakfast and Cornish honey then nothing until the evening which is lots of veg with a piece of fish or a couple of eggs. But I can't give up my tea without getting a headache, so my extra calories go on milk in my tea. All the best to you both.
ReplyDeleteHi Fww
DeleteThanks for dropping by and commenting. I too have developed a totally different way with food, and find that being hungry is actually not a bad feeling.
I would find your diet regime quite tough. On the first couple of days I tried to skip a meal (missing breakfast works best for me), but I just got really hungry towards the end of the day. I saw a TV documentary about diet and hunger a couple of years back – and it found that protein is good for holding back the hunger pangs. So we always start a fast day with an egg and a couple of my rye crackers and we try to have a large protein element with each meal. I love the fact that I can eat almost unlimited amounts of veg, and I've no doubt that we are eating much better now.
I've lost about 8lbs since starting, but I'm also limiting myself to 1820 calories on my non-fast days, which my handy little app has calculated will maintain weight loss at 1/2 pound per week. By the way, I googled the conversion rate for calories , and 1lb=3500cal. So if you're not eating more than 2000 cal on non fast days you can expect to lose just under 1lb per week.
All the best
Lars