The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

That's great rambler! I think the diet will work but it depends a bit more on people embracing the healthy eating for the whole week. As Dominic said, after a while on 5:2 you tend to change your preferences anyway, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if the two diets end up at the same place albeit from a slightly different starting point.

I believe the calories consumed on the far days will be a bit higher than on 5:2 so presumably that makes the 2 consecutive days easier? But that also means that you have to be a bit more careful on the other 5 days (if you want to lose weight that is).

Do keep us updated on how you get on.

"recommended foods"
"detox"
2 consecutive days
AAAAARRGGHHH
It moves further away from the science and more towards hokum by the minute.

But the whole idea of fasting is to give your body a chance to do other things instead of constantly digesting food; it can eliminate toxins and start to use stored fat - therefore it is a detox! And the recommended foods aren't a list of itemised foods, merely a guide to how you can eat healthily by recommending how many portions of protein, carbohydrates, fats, etc. your body requires. As you can see from my menu above, there's nothing 'hokum' about what I eat!

"eliminate toxins" - sorry, scientific basis for that comment ?

and guidance on food groups has little place in 5:2 - that guidance has failed millions of people for decades

5:2 works because it is simple.

2 days per week eat and drink 500 calories
2 days per week eat and drink your TDEE
2 days per week eat and drink within 10% of your TDEE
1 day a week eat and drink whatever you like

not many book royalties to extract from that are there....

MM's possibly got the odd royalty payment recently.

yup, and he quotes me by name on his main site.

5:2 works because it is simple.

2 days per week eat and drink 500 calories
2 days per week eat and drink your TDEE
2 days per week eat and drink within 10% of your TDEE
1 day a week eat and drink whatever you like

not many book royalties to extract from that are there....

Ironic that you are prescribing 2:2:2:1 with tight energy limits - has that been clinically tested ?

Good business for a metabolic testing or DLW service

Or a free website http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/ ... lator.html
and another free one to help you track calories http://www.myfitnesspal.com/

I've been doing 5:2 since September with great success and simplifying it to motivate others for most of that time.
Most overweight people do not have a 'picture' of healthy meals appropriate for their size.
Get that and all else is easy.

[carorees]

Most overweight people do not have a 'picture' of healthy meals appropriate for their size.
Get that and all else is easy.

That is so true, as I have discovered. I am still struggling with that after 4 months doing 5:2! My brain says I need more but my stomach says I've eaten too much. I have to control portion sizes carefully on feed days or my stomach will hurt. Breakfast after the fast day is hardest. I am probably eating ½ size portions compared with before I started.

Problem is that TDEE predictions only catch about 70% of the population within 10% of their predicted value, and most are based on thin people (and indeed Italian Fascist conscripts c1940)- so they overestimate TDEE of overweight / obese people which contributes to the overeating tendency.

So a predicted TDEE of 2000 is really a prediction of 1800-2200 and even that range is wrong for 30% of people. It is of course simple enough to start with a number and if not losing weight use a lower one, to the extent that I would just start at 1600 for women and 2000 for men and try it for 3 weeks.

PhilT
I'm not sure where you get your info on TDEE from.
While still posting on MN we checked out most of the TDEE calculators and compared the algorithms and research they are based on.
(there are over 11,000 posts on 5:2 over there)

The upshot was that TDEE was an extremely good guideline for short people, and even more so for the inactive.
Remember that weight loss is a side effect of 5:2, not the reason for it.

[i]

I would just start at 1600 for women and 2000 for men and try it for 3 weeks.

[/i]
What height women, what age, what activity level, what start BMI?
Sorry but TDEE is infinitely better than your version of the figure off the side of a cereal box.

Which is also why I've always suggested that people round their portions UP on MFP as chances are they are eating more than they think (see the 200 calorie pictures).

Caro : glad its starting to work for you.
The money you save on buying less food is an added bonus!

PhilT
I'm not sure where you get your info on TDEE from.
While still posting on MN we checked out most of the TDEE calculators and compared the algorithms and research they are based on.

I read a paper that looked into the data origins and correlations used. The average BMI of subjects is well below 30. What's your favourite equation then ? Katch McArdle seems one of the better "traditional" ones, I see Dr Harvie prefers the work of Henry and there's another review [url="http://www.adaneal.com/files/Docs/Frankenfield_et_al_2005[1].pdf"] here[/url]

Unless you have your metabolic rate measured you can't evaluate the accuracy of the predictions.

What height women, what age, what activity level, what start BMI?

Doesn't matter. You're making it over complex. Start at 1600, see what happens in 3 weeks, adjust accordingly. Simple. Beats watching people falling over the maths, mixing up BMR and TDEE, using equations based on skinny young Italian men when they're a fat middle aged woman etc. Nobody's going to die at 1600 or put on much weight in 3 weeks either.

If only 2/3 of individuals tested fall within 10% of a number I wouldn't bother calculating it to 4 significant figures, that's for sure.

yet again you are thinking about 5:2 like a medically supervised diet.
Its not.
Its a long term way of eating that happens to have weight loss as a side effect for those who are not lean.

I have no intention of trying anything for a period as short as three weeks.
I'm looking at it a month at a time now.

and the point of using TDEE is that it involves each person taking control of THEIR dietary needs rather than the figures on the side of a cereal packet (or your 1600)