5:2 Diet Questions

Top tips for 5:2 diet newbies & first time fasters!

Posted on by Moogie

One of the most common questions which I’m asked by newbies to the 5:2 Diet via Twitter, the forum, Facebook and email is “got any tips?“.

Indeed I do! I’ve been doing this for close to a year now, and these are the things I would say are most important for first time fasters when embarking on their first 5:2 diet fasting day.

1. Don’t be afraid!

This seems to be a really common feeling among first time fasters – fear. What are they afraid of? Usually, hunger. Around the world people live with hunger every day and survive, really there’s no need for anyone in a developed nation to worry about eating rather less a couple of days a week. Hunger is not something to be afraid of even if it is something of an unknown to many of us. We’re so used to just eating something the minute we feel peckish. People seem to think that hunger will just get progressively worse if not fed, but as Dr Mosley described on Eat, Fast and Live Longer, hunger comes in waves. It passes. It’s really nothing to be afraid of and when you learn to accept hunger and ignore it there is a certain kind of smugness one can enjoy at the sense of control this gives you over your body’s urges. Don’t be afraid, be proud of yourself for what you’re doing and what you’re going to achieve through it. A bit of willpower goes a long way and ‘dieting’ just twice a week really can change your life.

2. Drink Water. Plenty of it.

Did you know that more often than not, what we think is hunger is actually thirst? Most people don’t drink enough clear fluids. On a fasting day water really is your friend.

Feeling hungry? Have a glass of water – it will fill you up or quench that thirst you mistook for hunger!

Feeling tired? You’re probably dehydrated. Have a glass of water!

Got a headache? You may be dehydrated. Have a glass of water!

Noticing a theme here? Water is great. For the first few months I drank so much water on my fast days that I was up and down to the loo like a… um… person who has drunk too much water. With time, you learn to deal with the hunger and the other minor side effects tend to fade too – and with that your water consumption will probably decrease too.

3. Plan your fasting day meals

In the early days of fasting the last thing you want is to be going out food shopping trying to find what you’re going to eat! Decide ahead of time how you plan to spend your calories and stick with it. Buy things in advance, and if you don’t think you can face cooking on the day you can even prepare meals ahead of time. I love to batch cook some of my 5:2 dinner favourites and have a freezer full of yummy things like Quorn Bolognese, chilli, ratatouille, lasagne and more! While processed foods aren’t generally recommended in a healthy diet, you may find it easier to simply buy in a quality ready meal or two for your fasting days, no need to cook or count the calories – just bung it in the microwave and voila! Instant calorie-counted meal. Too many calories in the ready meal you want? Use half of it, bulk out with steamed veg (another pre-calorie-counted microwavable delight) and save the other half for another day. Simple!

3. Keep Busy!

Few things make a fast day more difficult than a day where there’s nothing to do. Time drags by and makes it seem difficult, particularly if you are used to eating often. Keeping busy on your fast day will make it go by more quickly and of course be more enjoyable! The more time you spend doing other things the less time you’ll spend thinking about food. Believe me a lot of newbie fasters will spend a great deal of time thinking about food – and fantasizing about the amazing breakfast they want to have the next day! Oddly enough come the next morning most of us find we’re not the ravenous fiends we expect to be and are happy to have a normal breakfast. If you’ve got nothing to keep you busy on your fasting day, why not have a good old read around the 5:2 forum and join in some of the conversations there? It’s a great time killer and you’re bound to pick up some great tips & advice about this way of eating as well as making some new 5:2er friends to support you on your weight loss journey! Alternatively why not go for a walk or do some exercise? You may well burn more fat while fasting and somehow it feels really good to break a sweat on a fast day. Actually, it’s a great way to distract from the hunger too. Spend your lunch break at the gym or have a walk around the block!

4. Don’t eat until you’re really hungry.

This is something you’ll probably have to adjust to over time, since you may not really know what hunger feels like beyond the usual peckish feeling. The longer you can wait before you eat, the longer fasting period you get in and the more time your body has to try to burn off some fat reserves. On top of this a great many of us at the forum have reported that the moment we eat something on a fast day, we start to feel hungry. It’s often easier to go without rather than kick starting the appetite and because of this a lot of Fast Dieters choose to save the majority of their calories for their evening meal. You can have a really good meal for around 500 calories and it’s well worth waiting for.  There’s an interesting topic about ‘The Hunger Switch’ at the forum which you might find useful. Remember the 5:2 diet is really flexible and you may need to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you in terms of dealing with hunger, when you need to eat and what sort of foods work best for you on a fasting day.

5. Headache tablets – don’t have them? Buy some!

Yes, a lot of people find they get headaches during their first few fasts. If a glass of water doesn’t fix it, don’t be afraid to take some headache tablets. Just make sure you check whether they’re okay to take on an empty stomach – aspirin based pills are a no-go, but paracetamol should be fine. Headaches can also be a sign of withdrawal symptoms, most often from sugar or caffeine. Sugar is something you should try to avoid on a fasting day if possible as it often makes you more hungry, caffeine on the other hand is fine and will help keep those withdrawal headaches at bay. Just remember black coffee and black tea are calorie free but if you’re adding sugar, sweeteners or milk you need to count those calories!

6. Don’t overload your tummy the next day (listen to your body)

Okay, so strictly speaking this isn’t for your first fast day, but it’s an important one. I’ve noticed people reporting tummy pains the day after their first few fasts, or a sudden dash to the toilet after eating (someone at the forum referred to this as ‘rapid transit’, which tickles me!). This generally doesn’t mean something is wrong and in my experience it is usually a case of overloading your stomach with food after a fast. Maybe you ate breakfast even though you didn’t feel hungry (you’ll soon learn not to do this!), maybe you had a normal sized breakfast but your body only needed a small one. Maybe you just needed to wait until mid morning before your first meal. There’s a lot of conflicting information online about whether breakfast is really as important as it’s made out to be. There are arguments on both sides but I would say that one of the greatest things about 5:2 is how it gets you back in tune with your body’s needs. If your body has complained about something you’ve put in it, learn to listen. Feed it at a different time, feed it less, feed it something else. Work out what it needs rather than what you want and go with that. You’ll be glad you did 🙂 I almost never have breakfast before 10.30am these days and quite often it’s nearer lunch time before hunger actually kicks in. For years I’ve eaten breakfast because it’s what we’re told to do, but I seldom actually woke up hungry. But that’s an article for another time methinks!

 

Well those are my top 5:2 tips, but I’m sure there are plenty more that other Fast Dieters can offer you! There’s a whole thread of 5:2 tips & advice at the forum which you can read here.

There was also a video on YouTube with some great advice for newbies, unfortunately it seems to have been taken down – however the site which posted it still includes the article which went with it, which you can read here.

And don’t forget – it does get easier!

How do I do the 5:2 diet / The Fast Diet?

Posted on by Moogie

It really is very simple! These are the ‘rules’ of the 5:2 Diet/The Fast Diet. There are only two and they make it really flexible.

  • You fast two days a week, ideally non-consecutive days are easier for most but you can do consecutive days if necessary.
  • A fasting day is this: wake up, consume no more than your calorie allowance (600 calories for men/500 calories for women), go to sleep. Wake up and eat as normal the next day.

Yes, that’s it! The rest is up to you.

This is the ultimate in flexible diets – after all, a diet should fit around you and not the other way around! So, you can pick and choose your days each week based around social or work commitments as needed. If you prefer you can choose two days and stick to them each week, just swapping things around if other events crop up.

As for how to spend your calorie allowance, well that’s up to you as well! Some prefer to split it into several smaller meals, The Fast Diet book recommends having a breakfast and dinner but many of us at the forum have found that as soon as we eat we just feel more hungry and instead have opted to save the majority of our calories for a nice big dinner. You can eat well on a 500-600 calorie dinner! Plenty of non-starchy veg are ideal with a nice side of low calorie, low fat protein such as chicken, lean ham, fish or egg. I’ve written a post about what to eat on your fasting days too, you can find it here.

Remember that you do not have to consume the entire calorie allowance if you prefer not to. Sometimes I make a huge salad for around 250 calories and that’s more than enough to fill me up and keep me going. Some people prefer to stick to liquids only on their fast days, although the number of calories will depend on the liquid. I wouldn’t recommend a liquid only fast for beginners!

Some of us prefer to start our fast after dinner the night before our fasting day, but this is by no means mandatory or essential. It may save you a few calories over the course of the week and get you out of those bad habits of evening snacking though.

So, a typical 5:2 fasting day lasts around 36 hours – from dinner the night before until breakfast the day after.

2pm-2pm Fasting – a 24 hour fast?

There has been some confusion over the duration of the fast as technically it is only one day, but this does not mean it is only 24 hours – there is a sleep either side of the fasting day, making it nearer 36 hours. In The Fast Diet book Mimi Spencer mentions a 2pm-2pm “24 hour fast” as an alternative however this is rather confusing and somewhat misleading as those who have tried to fast with this method have found the weight loss to be minimal. The problem seems to be that with this method the calorie deficit is reduced as most would have a lunch before starting their fast, then fast through until a late lunch the next day. This in effect replaces only a dinner and breakfast with 500 calories of food rather than a whole day’s worth. If you are going to try the 24 hour/”1 sleep” method be advised that the weight loss will be slower than with the original method unless you remember not to have two lunches! Ideally you should have lunch, do your 24 hour of fasting and then not eat a meal again until dinner time (I suppose you can get away with a healthy afternoon snack to break your fast).

What should I eat on my feed days? What is TDEE?

Posted on by Moogie

The fasting diet books would have us believe that we need only eat ‘as normal’ on our feed/feast days, however for many of us this doesn’t really say enough. A great deal of us have become overweight for the very reason that we have lost touch with what normal eating is.

So, what is a normal daily intake?

Nutrition labels would have us believe that a normal intake is around 2000 calories for a woman and 2500 calories for a man. That’s quite a broad generalisation though and is akin to taking a shoe and saying that it will fit anyone. In the case of calorific intake one size sadly does not fit all! If you live a mostly inactive lifestyle your needs may be considerably lower – although with a higher body mass you may find your needs are actually higher just to keep your body going at its current size.

If you were maintaining weight prior to starting the 5:2 diet then your daily intake was just right for your body’s daily needs and this is how you should continue to eat on your feed days.

If you were gaining weight or losing weight prior to starting the 5:2 diet then your daily intake was not ‘normal’, but was above or below your daily needs. You may need to calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) to get an idea of how much you should be eating as a ‘normal daily intake’ for your body’s needs. TDEE varies based on your height, weight, gender, age and activity level so it’s important you calculate it based on your own figures & circumstances. There are various TDEE calculators available online which are simple to complete. Alternatively you an sign up for free to use the 5:2 Diet Progress Tracker at the forum and this will calculate your TDEE for you, with the added benefit of updating the figure as you lose weight (remember, the more weight you lose, the less calories your body needs to function). Wherever you calculate your TDEE, be sure to set the calculator to maintenance rather than a figure for weight loss – you need to eat to a maintenance level on your feed days as your weekly calorie deficit comes from your fasting days.

So, although the 5:2 method isn’t about calorie counting every single day, you may find in the early days you will need to keep track of your feed day intake as well as your fast days, to ensure you are not overeating compared with your body’s needs. Some of us have found that the weight loss is improved by mixing things up a bit on our feed days, for example rather than sticking strictly to our TDEE every feed day we have a couple of days over TDEE (for example, a slightly more indulgent weekend!) and stay similarly under TDEE on the other days. This seems to keep the metabolism guessing somewhat – as well as allowing us to have a bit of a foodie splurge from time to time.

As for the sorts of foods you can eat, well as has been previously covered, no foods are off limit. It’s all about eating a normal amount rather than cutting out entire food groups. Some 5:2ers choose to combine this way of eating with other methods such as Paleo or Low-carbing on their feed days. Some even mix in a bit of Atkins! But, that’s down to individual desires and you certainly don’t need to do anything more than 5:2 to shift those pounds. Many of us Fast Dieters find ourselves making more healthy choices naturally as a result of this way of eating and even reducing portion sizes as we learn to listen to our bodies and realise just how much we used to eat unnecessarily. We don’t feel the same desperate urge to feed hunger the moment it strikes as we’ve learned we’re not going to die of starvation if we wait until the next meal. That’s not to say we don’t still have snacks and ‘treats’, but a more sensible relationship with food seems to be a natural progression from the 5:2 diet and many of those feelings of guilt we used to experience when eating so called ‘forbidden foods’ are no longer part of our lives, we can eat those things and not feel bad about it because it’s part of an overall more healthy way of eating.

 

What should/can I eat and drink on my fasting days?

Posted on by Moogie

Technically, the only restriction placed on your fasting days is that you should consume no more than 500 calories (if you’re a woman) or 600 calories (if you’re a man).

I’ve heard of some chaps who fast on a packet of crisps and a pint of beer and others who just eat chocolate or biscuits. This probably isn’t the most sensible of options in terms of filling you up and getting adequate nutrition but it still seemed to work for them!

If you prefer to take a more sensible approach to it and want to feel full and nourished on your fast days I suggest you stick to the mantra of Dr Mosley & Mimi Spencer, which is “mostly plants and protein”. Protein will keep you feeling fuller for longer while the plants (non-starchy veg preferably) will bulk out your meal for very few calories and provide plenty of vitamins and all that sort of planty goodness!

It is recommended that you steer clear of carbohydrates, sugars and fats on your fasting days or at least keep them to a minimum. That said, I haven’t cut out carbs from my fast days (the odd carb free meal here and there) and have still lost weight – and enjoyed my food! Sugars will tend to just make you more hungry so they are best avoided. I love a nice big plate of vegetables with a piece of low calorie protein such as chicken, turkey or lean pork – even Quorn products are great for fasting – with a nice measured out amount of gravy. Sometimes I chuck on a couple of baby potatoes which I’ve boiled but finished off in the oven with a spray of Frylite low cal oil spray. Another good one is a giant salad, most salad veg are so low calorie you can still have your favourite tasty dressing and throw in some chicken, ham or egg for protein. Omelettes are great too as a filling meal and you can throw all sorts of things in or on them. Don’t be too heavy handed with the cheese though, you may be surprised by just how many calories are in a small portion!

In terms of drinks water is the go-to drink, refreshing and hydrating. I used to always drink squash before I started 5:2 but after a day of just water the squash tasted too sweet! Black coffee & black tea are next to no calories so drink as much of them as you like, but if you’re adding milk or sugar be sure to count the calories. There is much debate about diet or 0 calorie fizzy drinks and whether they are a good thing or a bad thing on a fasting day. While most of us can agree that the chemicals and substitutes used in these products aren’t especially desirable or indeed in any way beneficial to the body, if they help to get you through a fast day and it’s not the only thing you ever drink then I don’t see why you shouldn’t enjoy it. Some report that the fizz helps make them feel full – fizzy water could be a good alternative. Squashes and fruit teas are relatively low calorie and apparently Green Tea (an acquired taste, and one I myself have not taken to) is good for the metabolism so enjoyed by many Fast Dieters. When it comes to juices however be advised that these are usually very high in calories and the fruit sugars may just make you more hungry.

Savoury drinks are another option if you want to avoid sweetness on a fast day. Things like stock cubes, bouillon, Bovril and marmite can all be used as a low calorie alternative to the traditional cuppa-soup for a savoury hit which fills you up.

Finally, a real treat for a fast day is a low calorie hot chocolate drink – many report that it helps to get them to sleep at night and they save their calories for it. Cadbury’s Highlights are just 40kcal for a sachet and give you a sweet warm fix ideal for bedtime. Personally I like to use a teacup and just have a half portion for 20kcal. There are others such as Options which are similarly low calorie.

I should note having mentioned low calorie and diet products here that as a general rule of thumb these low fat or diet versions of foods are far from good for us and in some cases may even contribute to weight gain. There’s a fantastic TV documentary series about it which you can catch on YouTube, titled The Men Who Made Us Fat, it’s another eye-opener and I can tell you I’ll never eat margarine again!

How much weight can I expect to lose on the 5:2 diet/The Fast Diet?

Posted on by Moogie

Contrary to what The Fast Diet book might tell you about expecting to lose 1lb per fasting day, the reality according to the 5:2 weight loss statistics we have gathered at the 5:2 forum are somewhat different.

Indeed, as with any diet the early losses tend to be greater as much of this is simply water weight being lost.

On average it would seem that a stone (14lbs) can be lost in the first 5-8 weeks of eating the 5:2 way, depending on factors such as your starting size/BMI and activity level.

Following this initial loss our statistics show that the rate of weight loss slows down to a steady 1lb per week on average. Those with more weight to lose may find they can keep losing 1.5-2lbs a week for some time longer before slowing down and those with less to lose may well find it a struggle to even lose 1lb a week.

In no way is this diet a quick fix, but I find it to be a worthwhile trade off. Two days a week I eat less and I gradually lose weight while still enjoying my food. With some of the other popular diets or slimming clubs I would be expected to give up on certain foods or cut my intake every day of the week. For that level of sacrifice 1lb a week might seem meagre – but I’m not making that kind of sacrifice with 5:2, so this really feels like something sustainable for me. This is a sentiment echoed by many others at the forum.

To get a realistic idea of the sort of loss you could achieve you are welcome to register with the 5:2 Diet Progress Tracker at the forum which will then allow you to filter the statistics & charts by age, gender, starting BMI etc. By selecting the settings which most closely match your circumstances you can see the results others like you have achieved with intermittent fasting.

 

Why have I gained/maintained weight doing The Fast Diet/5:2 diet?

Posted on by Moogie

During the first month of 5:2 intermittent fasting your body will go through a period of adjustment. Water weight is lost in the early stages, followed by fat loss – but some water is also regained.

For this reason many new Fast Dieters find that their weight can yo-yo somewhat during the first month of this way of eating. They lose a lot of water weight, then find the scales stay the same for a week or two as fat is lost but water is regained. Sometimes they’ll find the scales go up a little before going back down. This is perfectly normal. Although most fasters find that they will have a significant loss in the first week, others who were not retaining so much water will find that the loss comes along in week 2-3, with no initial loss at all.

The key to it is perseverance and gaining a better understanding of how your body weight fluctuates naturally.

If you were to weigh yourself every day (even if it is at the same time of day) you would find that the numbers can vary by several lbs (or even more, depending on your size). This is for all sorts of reasons, including what you’ve had to eat recently (some foods cause increased water retention), whether there is still food in your gut, hormones at different times of the month and any number of other mysterious reasons.

Bearing this natural weight variation in mind then it is easy to see how one might be deceived by the scales as a weigh in might indicate no loss or even a small gain – but this could very well be down to your natural weight changes. It is often only over the longer term that we can see the bigger picture and really notice the downward trend of the numbers on the scales. The moral of the story? Don’t put all your trust in the scales – try a measuring tape too as this will tend to be more honest with you! At the end of the day, what’s really more important? The number on the scales or the shape and size of your body?

If you are quite active or are exercising in addition to fasting then you also need to remember that muscle weighs more than fat, so even though you’re losing fat if you are gaining muscle too then your weight may very well go up – but your body shape will be changing for the better!

Unfortunately the above is not the only explanation for weight gain or maintain on the 5:2 diet…

There is the possibility that you are overeating on your feed days and therefore negating the calorie deficit from your fasting days. Many users at the forum report having gone through a phase of overeating in the early stages of intermittent fasting, but happily find that within a couple of weeks the novelty of no foods being forbidden soon wears off and normal eating resumes. It may not even be something as obvious as overeating – beware the calories that sneak in through drinks such as fancy coffees, fruit juices and smoothies! A single piece of cake or muffin can contain as many as 600 calories, so choose sensibly or have it instead of your breakfast or lunch (obviously don’t do this every day, that wouldn’t be healthy – but surely better to eat the cake instead of lunch rather than in addition to it?) If you think you may be eating too much on your feed days please see the post about TDEE for more information. Something interesting I picked up from The Men Who Made Us Fat is that most people don’t try to balance their eating – so for example if they have eaten an entire ‘sharing bag’ of crisps to themselves one would expect them to cut back on the following meal as they have already had plenty of calories. This is sadly not the case and most people will eat extra without trying to balance it out over the course of the week. There is no harm in skipping or reducing the size of an occasional breakfast or lunch to balance out your intake. Indeed, there is some debate as to whether breakfast as important as it has been made out to be over the years. I for one do not feel hungry on waking up but for many years have eaten breakfast because it’s what we’re told to do. These days I try not to eat unless I’m hungry (or if I really, really, really want something – not just fancy it) as I’ve learned to listen to my body more. If I don’t wake up hungry I don’t eat until I feel hungry – often this is midmorning or nearer lunchtime, by which point I find I don’t need such a large lunch later on as I’m still full from breakfast.

But I digress!

Another possibility, believe it or not, is that your are under-eating on your feed days. It may seem contrary but in some cases if you are calorie restricting on your feed days as well as fasting it can be detrimental to your metabolism. Although there is debate as to whether ‘starvation mode’ really exists, it does seem that if you don’t eat enough your body will try its best not to lose weight. In all fairness under-eating is not often the cause and if you are in any doubt about your intake please do check your TDEE and consider keeping a food diary at least in the short term to assess your intake vs your body’s calorific needs.

The final possibility (well, there may be others but this is the final one I’m listing) is that you have an undiagnosed medical condition such as a problem with your thyroid, metabolism or diabetes. If you are concerned that you are not losing weight (please do give it at least a month of no loss first) with this method and are not under or overeating then do consult your doctor.

There’s a really informative topic over at the forum which you might find useful too:

Why do the scales show an increase when I’ve been so good?

Can anybody do The Fast Diet/5:2 diet?

Posted on by Moogie

Fasting is not recommended for the following types of people:

  • Type 1 Diabetics
  • Pregnant or breastfeeding women
  • Women trying to get pregnant
  • Anyone who has or had an eating disorder
  • Under 18’s
  • Anyone who is currently underweight (BMI of under 18.5)

If you have any doubt as to the 5:2 diet’s suitability for you please consult your medical practitioner before beginning.

Can I really eat whatever I want?

Posted on by Moogie

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.

 

 

Does the 5:2 Diet/The Fast Diet really work?

Posted on by Moogie

Yes, it does! I’ve been doing it for almost a year now, have lost over 3 stone and I still love this way of eating.

Don’t just take my word for it though. We’ve a whole community of thousands 5:2ers/Fast Dieters at The 5:2 Fast Diet Forum the vast majority of whom have had great success with this way of eating – even those with type 2 diabetes or thyroid problems.

Above all else (although there are other factors of course), weight loss is about calories in versus calories out. By drastically cutting back on your calorie intake two days a week you will create a calorie deficit over the week, resulting in weight loss.

The 5:2 diet isn’t a quick fix, after the initial higher losses (which one experiences with almost any diet) the loss tends to slow to a more manageable 1lb per week. This may not sound like much but bear in mind that you’re not having to cut out entire food groups from your diet nor are you denying yourself each and every day of the week. It’s sustainable, and that’s where other diets often fall down.

Most of us following the 5:2 plan don’t like to think of it as a diet. It’s not a diet, it’s a sustainable way of eating for life.

The figures speak for themselves. We’ve been gathering weight loss data from thousands of Fast Dieters at the forum and compiling the data into charts, figures and statistics demonstrating the fantastic 5:2 diet results achieved across a broad range of people around the world.

On the rare occasions that users complain the diet isn’t working it tends to be either a case of vast overeating on their feed days (thus negating any calorie deficit from the fasting days), miscalculation of calorie intake (try keeping a food diary to work out what you’re actually consuming) or an undiagnosed medical condition such as a problem with the thyroid or metabolism.

The vast majority seem happy to stick with this way of eating and report that they have had greater success with this method than with other plans or slimming clubs. What’s especially appealing is that this method is totally free! There are no membership fees to pay, no fancy foods to buy – you don’t even need to buy the book. All the info you need is available online. It’s a simple, effective method for weight loss.

Where did the 5:2 diet/The Fast Diet come from?

Posted on by Moogie

The 5:2 Diet also known as The Fast Diet is a form of intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting has been around for a long time, predominantly in the form of ‘ADF’ – Alternate Day Fasting, where ADFers fast every other day.

This particular variation of intermittent fasting was made popular and brought to the attention of the media by Dr Michael Mosley with his BBC Horizon documentary, Eat, Fast and Live Longer. The documentary aired in early August of 2012 and sparked various books including Kate Harrison’s 5:2 Diet Book and Dr Mosley’s own The Fast Diet book (co-authored with Mimi Spencer) along with a plethora of others and subsequent recipe books.

The original Horizon documentary, “Eat, Fast and Live Longer” can be seen here. For me, this was a life changer as I took to the diet immediately after watching it!

There’s also a really handy little video on YouTube “The Fast Guide to The Fast Diet” for those who don’t have or can’t be bothered to read the book.