5:2 diet – days of the week

I started the 5:2 diet on 24 Oct 2012. Since then I’ve been pretty consistent in fasting two days a week, each week, with some breaks.

A key point to note is that most weeks I fast on consecutive days, rather than alternating. This works for me, but if I were to alternate, I can see a good pattern would be to fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I treat fast days as the whole of that day, from midnight to midnight. I mention this because I’ve heard that some people use different timings. What I gain from 5:2 is a mindset that says – it’s Wednesday and I’m fasting. This makes it psychologically easier to avoid the high-calorie snacks that are a feature of my normal days. At the end of a fast day I find I sleep very soundly and wake up refreshed and ready to start the new day. Furthermore the night’s sleep has ‘washed the slate clean’ in the sense that I’m fine to continue fasting if it’s day two, and that I don’t feel the need to ‘pig out’ if it’s a normal day.

In some weeks it’s more sensible to fast on non-consecutive days: I have no difficulty with this.

I started off with Wednesday/Thursday as my fast days. Over time I noticed something pretty obvious, namely that my weight peaked at weekends, with Monday mornings often showing a particular spike. So I switched my fast days to Monday/Tuesday reasoning that this was a good way to start the week, and to counteract the effects of the weekend.

I continued like this for a few weeks and months, eventually coming to the conclusion that this made for an unnecessarily harsh transition between the weekend and the working week. So I shifted to Tuesday/Wednesday, which remains my current pattern. In this way Monday acts as a more natural counterbalance to the weekend: my eating habits on work days are much more disciplined than when I’m at home.

5:2 diet – 4 months on

I started the 5:2 diet on 24 Oct 2012, and last posted about it exactly four months ago.

By way of reminder – it’s very simple. You eat normally five days a week, and ‘fast’ on two. This means restricting intake to 600 calories on each fast day (500 for women). There’s some discussion over whether the two fast days should be consecutive: I’m not aware of anything definitive on this, but in my case, I usually fast on consecutive days. And presumably there are options over how you spread the 600 calories across the day: in my case I go for three 200-calorie meals.

By way of another reminder – it’s not just about weight loss. In fact the BBC Horizon programme that introduced me to 5:2 stressed that the primary focus is longevity, general health, and body chemistry.

After an understandable break over Christmas I returned to 5:2 in the New Year, and have kept up the necessary calorie intake pattern since then. This has been straightforward: physically and mentally it seems my body recognises and understands what’s going on. This is why some prefer not to refer to it as a diet at all – and that perhaps it’s best described as a lifestyle.

So what of the learning points, and results ? More to follow.

5:2 diet – Christmas

I started the 5:2 diet on 24 Oct 2012.

First two months

The initial period up to Christmas, was good. The diet was feasible and realistic, and I see it continuing long term.

On weight, adjusting for the ‘dressing gown effect’, I had lost 5.4 kg against my average for 19-21 Dec, or 5.9 kg against my absolute lowest. So a good five kilos.

On general body fat, I was correspondingly down by 2.4 or 3.1 percentage points.

And visceral fat showed a steady decrease from 12% to 11% to 10%.

Christmas

Christmas means food and extra goodies and I had no intention of forgoing that. Plus I was off work for two weeks. Actually this second factor was probably the more important in terms of my food intake: at home I’m highly likely to graze, and this makes for a significant difference between working days and even a normal weekend.

So I was in for a 19-day fast-free period. I wanted to monitor the effect and so continued to weigh myself daily. It’s precisely because general body fat is so variable that you need a number of readings to discern any trend. So how did it go ?

Weight

In the first 10 days weight climbed steadily from around 89 kg to around 92 kg. It stabilised, and the end-Christmas 5-7 Jan average was 92.1 kg (3.4 kg up on the pre-Christmas 19-21 Dec average).

General body fat

Interesting. This measure remained down. The 19-21 Dec average was 25.2% and the 5-7 Jan average was – how about this – 24.8%. Over Christmas it varied between 24.2% and 26.1% – the high point corresponding to Boxing Day morning !

Visceral fat

Up from 10% to 11%.

Back to work

No problems whatsoever in fasting on 7 & 8 Jan. Actually I did hanker after a bit of Christmas cake and a drop of Baileys when I got home on 7th – but made do with a low-calorie soup instead !

While 2012 had quite a few more-obvious highlights there’s no doubt that discovering the 5:2 diet is the one of greatest lasting value. This blog will now go quiet on 5:2 for a bit. Let’s see what the next few months bring.

5:2 diet – up to Christmas

I started the 5:2 diet on 24 Oct 2012.

My height is 1.83 metres. The scales provide BMI (body mass index), which I record, but I find this measure abstract and tend to focus on weight. My start BMI was 27.9, the 17-19 Nov average was 27.4, and over this initial period it varied between 27.0 and 28.0.

As at mid-Nov it was obvious that fast days resulted in as much as a 1-kilo loss, but I was a little disappointed that the effect seemed to be lost in ensuing normal days. However I was happy to carry on for the time-being and monitor how things went. This meant fasting (600 calories) on two of the days (usually consecutive) between Monday and Friday, and eating normally on the other five.

A key breakthrough came when I transferred my readings into an Excel spreadsheet, and showed weight and general body fat as a graph. On weight it became immediately clear that there was a downward trend. Likewise for general body fat, although with much more variation. It was good to see the positive trend on general body fat, because there seems to be no rhyme or reason to changes from day to day.

It also dawned on me that a new dressing gown entered my life on 8 Nov. This is important because I weigh myself in my dressing gown, the new one is as luxuriant as they come (thank you John Lewis !), and the old one was pretty threadbare. The scientist in me really should have spotted this straight away. By itself the new gown weighs 1.7 kg and the difference between old and new is 800 g – which helps to explain those slightly disappointing first few weeks.

On weight the lowest was 88.2 kg, and the average (19-21 Dec) going in to Christmas was 88.7 kg.

On general body fat the lowest was 24.5%, and the 19-21 Dec average was 25.2%.

Visceral fat went down from 11% to 10%.

5:2 diet – first few weeks

My first fast day (of 600 calories) was 24 Oct 2012.

I started at 93.3 kg, general body fat 27.6%, and visceral fat 12%.

I weigh myself almost every day. I’m aware this isn’t recommended, and that readings vary from day-to-day – but wanted to see whether the diet was having an additional effect over and above daily variation. I weigh first thing. My routine involves letting the dog out, and because of Suki’s ‘rivalry’ with the dog next door I sometimes have to go out to ‘calm things down’ – meaning that weighing myself is actually my second activity – and involves a dressing gown.

In the first few weeks I could see that fasting had a dramatic instant effect on weight – which was then gradually erased on normal days. On each fast day I lost a kilo – so that’s 2 kg in two days. Pretty exciting – except that the weight then rose again, seemingly towards pre-diet levels. My average weight for 17-19 Nov was 91.8 kg, so the net effect was a little disappointing to be honest.

General body fat varied quite a bit and it was difficult to discern a pattern. Between 24 Oct and 19 Nov the maximum was 28.6% and the minimum 26.8%. The average for 17-19 Nov was 27.2%.

Visceral fat did show clear movement in the right direction, from 12% to 11%.

So these first few weeks seemed to be quite good, but perhaps not quite as dramatic as I might have anticipated. I’m pleased to say that the following month was to provide a more positive interpretation.

5:2 diet – week 2

Week 1 taught me quite a bit about how to construct three 200-calorie meals, and about the physical – rather than psychological – effects. From week 2 I was able to standardise, which simplifies food shopping.

Breakfast

Boiled egg, small quantity of low fat natural yoghurt, small apple, and small portion of vegetable (V8) juice.

Effective because enjoyable and has ‘staying power’.

Lunch

Simmered-in-water chicken and salad-type vegetables (carrot sticks, celery sticks, peppers, baby tomatoes, lettuce. I found it important to weigh the chicken, 100g being more than sufficient.

Slightly less effective because a bit bland.

Dinner

Full 600g carton of a commercial low-calorie soup.

Effective because some of these soups really are very good, and a large quantity represents only around 200 calories.

Drinks

Herbal tea (such as camomile) instead of milky tea and coffee.

——————-

In week 2 I felt pretty good both days: certainly physically stronger than the previous week.

My boss was moving on to better things and so there were plenty of nice cakes readily on offer. Usually I would have consumed far more more than my fair share of such goodies, but I was able to avoid the temptation in a way that felt normal.

5:2 diet – week 1 day 2

Day 2 of my 5:2 diet means fasting with a 600-calorie target – immediately following my first 600-calorie day (which actually came in at 659 calories).

First thing

I slept soundly. Boy did I sleep well !

I awoke refreshed, feeling good, ready to face the day, not at all hungry.

Breakfast – 200 calories

• Boiled egg – 88
• Apple (110g) – 52
• Low fat yoghurt (50g) – 30
• V8 juice (30ml) – 30

The same breakfast as yesterday – just with a slightly larger apple ! I was very conscious that achieving a 200-calories breakfast is all about getting portion control right. Again I found this breakfast to be satisfying, and left me naturally full.

Lunch – 210 calories

• Chicken (120g) – 166
• Tomatoes/celery/carrot/pepper – 44

The chicken had been simmered gently in water in the morning. Plain chicken was a bit bland to be honest, but more appealing than the sardines I’d had yesterday. Again the salad was a success.

As with yesterday this was caffeine-free, and I drank camomile tea as both a filler and a refreshing drink.

I felt much better as the afternoon wore on: day two was noticeably better in this respect than day one.

Dinner – 221 calories

• Pumpkin ghoulash soup (whole 600g carton) – 186
• Ryvita (1) – 35

The (commercial) soup was brilliant. Originally I’d planned to have half the carton, which is ‘officially’ one portion. However as the whole carton came in at only 186 calories, and as it was so wonderful I scoffed the lot ! It was warm and had an amazing smoky / paprika flavour – just what I wanted at the end of a long day ! Later I did again feel physically quite low, but less so than the day before, and with these effects felt later in the day.

Total calories: 631

Following morning

Again I slept extremely well !

Breakfast was rather good. Nothing special – but did I appreciate my coffee with bread / butter / marmalade. So I certainly enjoyed eating normally. But in many ways that’s all it felt like – eating normally. I wasn’t ravenous. I didn’t gorge on everything in sight. Eating that day was just – normal.

5:2 diet – week 1 day 1

Day 1 of my 5:2 diet means fasting with a 600-calorie target.

Approach

I’d already decided fast days would be work days – there are fewer opportunities to ‘graze’ on snacks, and I’m already pretty disciplined about not snacking too much. On office days I bring 4 bananas – as a conscious alternative to crisps and chocolate. But on a 600-calorie day, even those bananas will have to go.

And fast days would be those when I commute to London: I’m out of the house for longer, and the potentially most difficult time – the evening – is minimised.

I’m not aware of hard and fast rules as to how the 600 calories are best spread, but I thought I’d try three 200-calorie meals. I also planned to cut out my many cups of (milky) tea and coffee – mainly out of habit – and switch to a herbal-type tea, without milk.

Breakfast – 195 calories

• Boiled egg – 88
• Apple (100g) – 47
• Low fat yoghurt (50g) – 30
• V8 juice (30ml) – 30

Although small this was actually a pretty good breakfast: tasty, nutritious, and leaving me naturally full.

No problem waiting through to lunch as I’d set my expectations.

Lunch – 186 calories

• Sardines – 148
• Tomatoes/celery/carrot/pepper – 38

Sardines are convenient but it’s been a long while since I last had them, and they haven’t really stood the test of time ! My salad was successful and appealing – I eat plenty of this kind of thing anyway. Tomatoes, celery and peppers are all very low in calories.

I also took sustenance from camomile tea – not bad at all. This made for a caffeine-free day, which is probably a good thing every now and then. For most of the day I was not aware of the lack of caffeine having an effect on alertness.

I was certainly conscious of food, but – for most of the day anyway – I didn’t feel hungry, nor did I crave particular foods. As the day wore on, though, I had a small headache, became a little light-headed, and felt low physically.

Although I’d done quite a bit of research into calories, I know very little about calorie restriction, so wasn’t expecting physical effects – my prime concern being that it could have been mentally tough. I had absolutely no problem watching my colleagues tucking into their lunches, snacking on chocolate, or enjoying their coffee !

Late afternoon – apple (100g) – 47 calories

Dinner – 231 calories

• Small tin reduced sugar baked beans – 140
• Small slice of toast – 91

I’d promised myself a small portion of beans on toast. There was a frozen sliced (wholewheat) loaf in the freezer, and I was really shocked to discover that a small slice accounted for 91 calories ! Although this took me over my 200-calorie target my mindset was such that I was jolly well going to enjoy my mini feast regardless !

Total calories: 659