Yes, but possibly not in the way you think.

This is a common misconception about the 5:2 diet. It is not an excuse to enter a cycle of binging and starving, which is of course not healthy or advisable.

You can eat whatever you want on your feed days in the sense that no foods are forbidden. This doesn’t mean that you can eat as much as you want. If you over eat you will of course undo the calorie reduction obtained through your fasting days.

While the books, TV documentary etc tell you to eat ‘as normal’ on your feed days, it’s clear that many of us who have (or have had) weight problems do not really know what ‘normal’ is when it comes to eating. That’s probably what gave many of us these weight problems in the first place! Those of us who are out of touch with what a normal food intake is may need to count calories or at least be a bit more aware of what we are eating on our feed days. But the issue of daily calorie requirements is another topic altogether, you can read more about it here.