It’s hard to imagine a book on the 5:2 diet. Wouldn’t it be more like a pamphlet? A couple of sentences would probably do tbh.

The lack of pseudoscientific posturing to the actual diet is part of the appeal of the 5:2. I guess there must be attendant mumbo jumbo if someone actually has written a book about it, but the diet itself is refreshingly straightforward. The 5/2 ratio, along with the calorie recommendations, have prob been pulled out of someone’s ringpiece. But in doing so they have hit upon a neat psychological approach that I’m finding works for me.

No. Well maybe.

Neither have I found the ability to organise my life and actually stick to any of it, either. Ho hum. That’s my own fault though, nothing to do with diet.

I know a lot more about how my own body works though, which is good.

Don’t imagine it – try it for a fortnight. you might be surprised? It’s not 500 cals per day, it’s 500 cals for a day, two days a week. You won’t die, my bet is that you’ll feel hungry, probably about 2 in the afternoon, then it’ll pass and you’ll be OK once you’ve had your dinner.

If you knew me you’d know that I eat more than 500 cals before lunch – and I’m hungry at lunch 🙂

I like the little and often approach apart from the fact that I tend to eat large evening meals.

As always on any forum there is debate and polarised opinions. All I can add to the thread is that I watched the original Horizon prog and thought it a balanced and well presented piece of research. It did not hype any books or products at the time as far as I recall. What it did suggest was that with a permanent change of lifestyle you could achieve :-

Weight loss….tick
A change in various indicators that would lead to a reduced risk of Type 2 Diabetes and cholestoral heart disease….tick

The program showed research to prove this in the presenter himself and apparently the NHS agrees as well….So either try it and tell your results or shut up.

Having tried it (and stuck to it other than on my summer hols) I can confirm that you do loose weight and it’s not too hard to stick to..Don’t know if I’ve had any improvements in cholestoral or reduced my diabetes risks as I hadn’t had a test before but like a previous poster said …If I have then it’s a bonus (and it was a major part of my decision to try the diet in the first place) but if not then I’ve lost weight anyway.

But the results on the presenter were scientifically taken and proved that the theory worked…as backed up by the NHS…I’ll fetch my coat

Eat for sixteen hours, fast for eight. I’ve been doing it for years.

Works great.

I should write a book?

As someone who eats large amounts, struggles with portion control, makes awesome pies and curries, loves little more than a plate full of pasta. This diet plan, works for me, sometimes I follow it more tightly than others, I find a can fast at work pretty easily as the temptation is reduced. As has been said above, eating ‘sensibly and healthily’ all the damn time just means I’m made to feel bad for every nice thing I have, EVER. And frankly, **** that! Plus sticking to it for more than a couple of months is really hard to do. But if I am left to my own devices I put on 2 stone so something is needed. It sounds a lot like it works for otherS in a similar way. Found my diet.

Job Done

Been doing it a year now.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but every cycling biography I’ve read (when they go into such detail) seems to revolve around weighing portions, timing training so on bike food is taken over meal times (skipping a meal) and essentially ENSURING (and that’s the point, the bit I miss) a slight calorie deficit. They also all seem as neo pros to live on the cheapest carb rich foods they could get their hands on.

That and loads of drugs of course 🙂

The problem (especially for people like me who eat with the family) with following diets like pro cyclists is that they can eat what they want to buy for themselves and then have the time/will to train for hours a day. I could probably lose weight eating pasta three times a day if I was out riding for 5 hours+ a day. But after leaving the house for work at 7 in the morning then getting back at 7 at night then entertaining the kids for an hour or two it doesn’t leave a fat lot of time to ride.

Fasting diets are great if you need to restrict calories very low for office worker types that don’t get chance to do huge training milages. For example, for me to lose any weight, I have to restrict my calories down to below 1500 for the day, that’s pretty hard if you have breakfast, lunch and then dinner with a family of skinny feckers 😡

I’ve been on the Paleo diet for two months now and can thoroughly encourage it. The amount of research and references to peer reviewed articles is astounding. Backed by Joe Friel too, so ideal for athletes. It’s made a big difference to how hungry I am, and I’m in the form of my life currently.

That’s the old way of doing things, a neo pro often had to fend for himself. And generally cheap foods are carb rich, rather than the other way around.

If you followed a Team Sky neo pro, who will actually have access to the teams resources, dietitians etc will be on a carefully controlled diet which will contain a lot of protein and if they are tyring to lose weight will be in calorie deficit.

It’s probably not advisable for a pro cyclist who trains 5/6 times a week to do the 5:2 diet as on the fast days they will have very extreme calorie deficit; but for one of us regular people who can maybe only exercise twice a week it seems like a very simple, neat way to ensure we are in calorie deficit and being hungry twice a week won’t do us any harm.

Any ‘fad diet’ that consists of eating less ‘proper food’ rather than watered down corn syrup and cayenne pepper is fine by me,

Amen!

Go on I’ll bite(lite) Please provide references, this’ll be medical so proper medical journals.

It was me who said I’m doing it for weight loss, but if the other benefits of fasting giving your body space to regenerate are true then that’s an added bonus. I’m not convinced on that, I’ll be frank. But since start of year I’m down about 3st, my riding is transformed (as are my clothes), so count me as a fan.

Probably very similar, although if you do the maths (and assume 2500 is your non-fast day allowance and you stick to it) 2 x 500 + 5 x 2500 = 13500 / 7 means you need to save ca 600 kcal per day EVERY DAY. And that’s the issue, sticking to 1900 cals per day for ever is (for me) unsustainable particularly if i am in a hotel / in the US for a week / taking a client for dinner (and trust me, i’ve tried for years now including another 6 weeks or so of MFP controlled intake before going over onto the 5:2). Whereas accepting some days you stray but make it a non-fast day and damage is limited is sustainable.

As jonv said ^
That’s why I think it’s a lifestyle type of eating, easy to manage over a course of a week. I like my food and only having to ‘watch’ what I eat for 2 or 3 days per week as opposed to monitor intake daily is much more sustainable.

So your fat, eat less and do more exercise, not frikking rocket science is it! Fad diets are all about doing just enough that you lose some weight but not enough to actually make you keep it off once you stop!

If you are fat accept you eat too much and do too little, pretty simple! Cut out the take aways and eat a sensibly, increase exercise and hey presto!

There was actually an interesting documentary on channel 5 a few weeks back where some Aussie guy put some yank on a purely liquidised fruit/veg diet, did the trick damn fast, saved his bacon too! Took the p1ss out of any 5:2 diet!

If you’re not fat why are you on a diet?