The FastDay Forum

I have made no secret about doing 5:2. I got to the stage where I had lost 33lbs through myfitnesspal and exercise and the amount of high impact exercise needed to get the tiniest results was killing me.

Stuck on a plateau I'm now trying 5:2 and I understand the principles of it in terms of our ancestors not knowing where the next meal would come from/repairing the body. However I have had so many people (ones that know about fitness and nutrition) being very negative about 5:2, saying its unhealthy and dangerous.

Are these people just ignorant to the science or is there really something to worry about. I know you can probably get a medical person to conclude whatever you want them to conclude but this appears to have extensive health benefits supported by the health profession.

Have any of you discussed it with your GP's? What did they say?

I too find some of the 5:2 "rules" a bit weird and unusual since they are quite different than what we used to know about diets. But if it works, I'm happy!
I don't plan to ask my GP about it yet (I believe in jinxing things and I don't want to tell anybody yet) although I will see her tomorrow.
I wouldn't accept any judgement from her though, since she is on the Dukan diet which I find horribly unhealthy!!!
Am I bad patient or what? LOL!

Hahahahahahaha! Convert her!

I will when I go in my size 8 skinny jeans!!!!!!!!!!!

[carorees]

Well my best friend is a doctor (a consultant) and she is doing it...we also have a paediatrician here who is doing it. Some people have had their doctors recommend it. Others have had their doctors dismiss it as a fad.

I think very few people or doctors have looked at the science at all, even those who claim to be experts. I have looked at the science (and I'm certainly not an expert) and there is a lot we don't know/understand but there are many indications that short-term fasting may be beneficial. There have been a lot of studies of Ramadan fasting which involves fasting throughout the daylight hours with no food or drink and most studies have either found an improvement in health or no change. As millions of people follow the practice of fasting during Ramadan every year, I think there would have been some evidence by now if it was dangerous. Long-term fasting or long-term frequent intermittent fasting might be dangerous as there are studies in rats that suggest this although studies in rats are not really valid to extrapolate to humans. This is being discussed in a thread here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2569

Pretty much all the discussions on whether or not fasting is beneficial or dangerous have been based on a theoretical framework using results in animals. What no-one disputes is that being overweight is not healthy. If 5:2 can reduce obesity/overweight it is highly likely that the benefits of this will massively outweigh the disadvantages. Further, if fasting once or even twice a week can keep the weight from returning, that too is better than putting the weight back on. So for those of us who are overweight I think we should concentrate on losing weight and keeping it off. Indeed, several of our members have found their doctors to be very receptive to the diet when they discovered how much weight their patients had lost this way.

For people without a weight problem that is another matter. For most of those, fasting twice a week would be impossible to keep up without losing weight, so they are likely only to manage to 'fast' once a week. I find it very hard to imagine that having only 500/600 cals on one day a week could be harmful. Many naturally thin people do this anyway!

In total agreement with Carorees... no more to be said

Thanks Caroline.

TML13 - loving the skinny jeans comment!

I have made no secret about doing 5:2. I got to the stage where I had lost 33lbs through myfitnesspal and exercise and the amount of high impact exercise needed to get the tiniest results was killing me.

Stuck on a plateau I'm now trying 5:2 and I understand the principles of it in terms of our ancestors not knowing where the next meal would come from/repairing the body. However I have had so many people (ones that know about fitness and nutrition) being very negative about 5:2, saying its unhealthy and dangerous.

Are these people just ignorant to the science or is there really something to worry about. I know you can probably get a medical person to conclude whatever you want them to conclude but this appears to have extensive health benefits supported by the health profession.

Have any of you discussed it with your GP's? What did they say?

Nothing unhealthy about it. Our bodies are designed to skip a few meals now and then. This idea of 3-6 meals a day is complete nonsense. My skinny friends regularly skip meals. Just went for a walk around 1 pm with a friend who said he had only had an orange to eat so far that day.

We live in a culture where it is NORMAL to have an eating disorder -- it's called overeating and obesity. Skipping a meal or two is dangerous? Hah! What a laugh.

I would be reluctant to take diet advice from a GP anyway! At least 2/3 of the doctors at our local practice have no room whatsoever to comment on anyones weight let alone offer advice! Unless things have changed drastically doctors have never had more than a basic grounding in nutrition unless they choose to specialise. it seems to me that 5:2 simply gets us doing what all those 'narturally thin' people do all the time and that is to simply forget about food for awhile. I find it very liberating not being on a diet as such for the first time in most of my adult life and yet I am now slimmer than either of my sons can remember and the oldest is 33!

I have to see nurse for my high BP and asked if I would be ok on this diet. My wife checked with her GP as she has a thyroid condition and takes meds for this and other reasons. Both of us were told we could do it.

I have to say I got the impression the nurse was very sceptical about the clamed benefits, this was back in Aug 2012 and to be fair I don’t think she had even heard of this diet. Since then I have seen her once when I was 6 weeks into this diet, she was impressed with my weight loss and said my BP and bloods showed a small improvement. I am hoping to really impress her at my next review.

Personally I think the advice in the programme/book is correct. If you have a medical condition you should check with your doctor before starting. If your underweight, pregnant or planning to become pregnant IF is not for you, otherwise it should be fine.

Claire, I'll love it when I wear it!!!

I suspect that many of us - when we first heard about the 5:2 system - initially had a negative response to it. It goes against such a lot of our childhood "indoctrination" (three meals a day, eat up everything on your plate!) and our "common sense" (but I'll be so hungry that I'll faint, I won't have the energy to exercise, it will make me ill!).

It's only when we actually try it, and get used to it, that we discover for ourselves how beneficial IF is, and that the things we most feared aren't actually very important after all.

I tend to find, so often in life, that people scoff at the unknown and because its not what they do then its frowned upon.

Interesting to hear your experiences, people. Thank you x

That is because it is easier to deny something than read about it, research, ask etc...
Not to mention that to some people it is impossible to admit that they don't know something and they find it easier to say "yeah, yeah, I know all about it, it ain't working, it's not right, blah, blah, blah"...

People don't like change.