The FastDay Forum

I've been doing 5:2 with my wife since January 7th. I've told people at work and they have been interested - some even doing it themselves. However having told my friends, they are so anti it that we ended up falling out and have agreed not to talk about it anymore. The way my friends see it as a fad diet, as extremely unhealthy and particularly as being part if a "cult". It is amazing they seem to feel so threatened by a different view to their own knowledge, like there can't be any progress. My friends are all successful professionals and would not consider themselves closed minded but they just don't believe the science - they even say it is just made up for TV and to sell a book.

The frustrating thing is my wife and I have been losing weight, really enjoying ourselves on the non-fast days (and even enjoying the creative cooking on fast days to get the calories down) and more importantly have both lost lots inches. Admittedly my weight is fluctuating a lot more than I'd like but I feel this is sustainable long term. Ultimately I don't need to stress or worry about long term weight anymore. As Dr M says, this is a realistic practical way to help resolve the obesity epidemic problem

Therefore my advice is be careful who you tell - you might not get the support you need from the people you most want it from. Other people might surprise you. If getting your partner involved I highly recommend watching the Horizon episode together - you can find it on Google - there is a Vimeo link available

I have told my husband (who is very supportive) but very few other people and definitely not at work as I know one very nice colleague will have something to say about it! Thinks she is an expert and am sure will come back with her husband who is studying nutrition as part of his degree with his opinion. She is also a feeder and keeps baking cakes or bringing pastries and sandwiches back from meetings! She has brought in cake today but have said that am trying to eat light as sore stomach due to AF and light eating helps then........which acutally have found it does!

I'll wait until I lose a decent amount say a stone or more and then consider mentioning then. Maybe when they notice I have lost weight.

What a lovely post! Give your husband a bownie point for being so supportive
or just save the brownie for a feast day of course

I have been doing IF, and more recently 5:2 since August 2011, and told nobody! I am married and have 2 teenage sons, but I have always been a bit fussy and usually eat different stuff from them anyway! I have been in maintainance since oct 2011, so I may tell hubby...one day! Thing is, I have always had disordered eating, yoyo'ed in weight and tried different diets.
I tried low carb a couple of years ago, and I still think it is a healthy way to eat, I just couldn't stick to it..missed lots of food, eating out was nigh impossible. I bent poor hubby's ear about it all, then didn't keep to it! If I tell him about 5:2, he will just think I am going back to my old ways of disordered eating, or am onto the next fad!
He loves me to bits, and worries about me, and I am loath to add to it.
Jo
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Hi Jo, I know what you mean. My husband worries about me too. Im also very fussy about certain foods. My husband eats everything though, He's like a bin, but he's very fit and does a lot of outdoor physical exercise ( we have a small holding and we grow our own food).

And to StuartCojones, i have the same skepticism as your friends. This has been made for T.V and to sell a book. Maybe they've all jumped on an idea which is undeveloped and unproven just to make a good T.V show and sell the book and the news papers have certainly gotten a good story out of it. Which is why im waiting to see more proof, more human studies conducted on large scale, and meta analisis of all the human studies together before being 100% sure this isn't just a good marketing scheme.

Hi ALL,
I think there is a stigma to this diet and I told no one at first but after a few weeks the weight loss started to show. Then I told a few people with mixed reactions. 3 stone later everyone asks me and I tell them. When they start to argue I say look at me!! I've lost weight and you just said I look well!!

Its great they don't know what to say. Or I get quizzed and I am happy to spread the faith

I haven't told anyone that I've been following the 5:2 since 13th January. So far either nobody has noticed, or at least nobody has said anything! I don't think my family are very observant

When I first started, I didn't tell anyone. After a couple of weeks, I told my husband what I was doing (he hadn't noticed, because he was at work on my fast days and was having what he considered a normal evening meal) and he has been incredibly supportive. I gave him some information to read and he totally got the science behind it. He doesn't want to do it himself, but it has made him relook at his own eating habits and make some changes. So far, I've only told one friend, who it turned out knew of it and was very interested and was thinking about trying it herself. Otherwise, I've kept it to myself, because I don't want to have potentially negative comments about something that finally seems to be working for me.

[carorees]

Which is why im waiting to see more proof, more human studies conducted on large scale, and meta analisis of all the human studies together before being 100% sure this isn't just a good marketing scheme.

Aren't we all? I'm afraid it's going to be a long wait though! Mind you, our progress tracker data is convincing about the ability to lose weight, in a year or three we may know whether we can keep it off too.