5:2 Alternate Day Fast "Diet"

I've been very interested to try the 5:2 Fasting "Diet" (also known as the Intermittent or Alternate Day diet) after watching the BBC2 Horizon documentary with Dr Michael Mosley some time ago.  The premise is that you can anything you like for five days a week and still lose weight as long as you also fast for two days a week.  By fasting I mean calorie restriction for those two days.  There are also the health benefits that may go along with it too, reduced risk of some diseases and even positive effects on the brain. 

 

So with his new book "The Fast Diet" just arrived I'm busy reading it to get some more inspiration of what to eat on my fast days and to give me more structure, I started yesterday with a mini fast where I counted calories loosely keeping them around 900 (the recommendation is 500 for women and 600 for men) to see how I felt and I am delighted to say it went very well.  I carried my day on as usual and did not feel faint or tired.  I did, however, feel the rumble of my tummy a fair bit but then I usually take in more than double the calories!  I drank my usual 1½ litres of water and my tea with skimmed milk which helped to stave off the hunger too.

I'm not a calorie counter but with a view to starting the 5:2 diet I've been seeing what the calorific value of my everyday and treat foods are, some of it is quite startling!  I've also signed up to myfitnesspal which is a free calorie counter app to track my daily intake and it gives you a countdown of calories, very useful!  After putting in my personal particulars with how much I wanted to lose each week it gave me my personal daily calorie intake of 1210 plus factor in 2 days of the 5:2 Fast Diet of 600-750 calories (I may have to work my way down to 500!) could mean greater weight loss each week.

I read recently that safe weightloss, shedding fat not lean tissue, is around 1% of body weight so if you are 10 stone that equates to 1lb per week ongoing.  To do this you need to reduce calorie intake by 500 calories a day which over 7 days = 3500 calories which is what is needed to lose 1lb in weight!

Monday this week is my official first 5:2 Fast Day, very much looking forward to it, my days are busy so I'm hoping I won't notice the lack of calories, it's the evenings when I find the urge to nibble and even though it's healthy nibbles like almonds, they are still highly calorific!

For the first couple of weeks I will have to formulate menus as I'm not used to the calorie counting.  I'll post every Tuesday and Friday about what I ate on the fasting days and the health benefits and weight loss that hopefully come along with it. 

Let the fasting commence!

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