The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

Errr...colds are caused by viruses! What are you meaning by a cold? I mean sneezing, coughing, sore throat, runny nose maybe a mild fever...that is a cold and they are all caused by viruses.

Isn't this thread meant to be about hostile reactions to 5:2, not hostile viruses?!! If we're all suffering from colds and flus I'd imagine people would think this was a pretty dangerous diet.

Anyway, I am getting a bit fed up with seeing 5:2 described as a fad diet across the Internet and press. The successful results reported on this forum, after 6 months or more on the diet, are surely proof that it's not a fad/ dangerous etc. Even those who haven't lost weight haven't had bad experiences. Side effects are minimal and short lived in most cases.

I'm beginning to feel like a prothletising Christian (and goodness knows we've enough of them in NI) about 5:2, but the negative people nearly make me all the more determined to go on with this for life. While there is no concrete scientific evidence that 5:2 is a good thing, I've yet to see any concrete evidence that it's bad. And science doesn't know everything anyway. The body is complex and we're all still learning.

That's my tuppence worth anyway. *wanders off to find a dust mask to keep out cold and flu germs*

I'll say don't bother with people who just don't get it. Find something better to do with your time, like planning what clothes you'll buy when you reach your target weight by following the new fad diet that no one gets!

Errr...colds are caused by viruses! What are you meaning by a cold? I mean sneezing, coughing, sore throat, runny nose maybe a mild fever...that is a cold and they are all caused by viruses.

You are at the gym, sweating like a dog, you do out like this, it's 0C and windy. You wake up the next morning and you have a cold. This is not a virus but it is a cold...

[carorees]

No it's still a virus. The stress of going to the gym and then out into the cold lowered your immune defences just enough to let the virus multiply enough to cause symptoms.

This is rather confusing. I'll ask my doctor tomorrow, I'm going for yet another prescription of blood tests.

I'll say don't bother with people who just don't get it. Find something better to do with your time, like planning what clothes you'll buy when you reach your target weight by following the new fad diet that no one gets!

now that's something I can totally get on board with! I'm so excited about my trip to Europe in August!

Girlfriend. You lost 9lbs. And the science behind intermittent fasting being beneficial is pretty compelling. Enough said.

I haven't told many people either. Tried to talk to one who is doing a fruit diet mainly eating berries all day. Apparently that's ok but this isn't. It's also been slammed by Michelle Bridges(Australian biggest loser trainer). The annoying thing is you could tell she is only going on hear say and hasn't read the book or done any research.
Well to them

Well that's pretty freaking rich given how physically and psychologically harmful going on The Biggest Loser appears to be, and never even MIND the cultural harm of having a dehumanising TV show that's all about gawking at fat people and suggesting that they can't achieve any other goal in life without losing weight first.

I have only told my OH and a friend I went to SW with ,which I gave up after 2 weeks (I couldn't stick to restrictions of more than 2 weeks)and she wondered why I wasn't going anymore.

Because I am doing this from the comfort of my home and not having to haul my ass to a class, that never seems to suit my timetable, handover £5 just to weigh me, nobody knows what I am doing and so no need to divulge. I work from home so nobody is watching what I have to eat and commenting. I have only lost 5lb so nothing is showing yet, so no comments from friends. When I socalise it is on a feast day so noone is any the wiser.

I have been on so many diets and in the end I revert back to my old ways. I consider this a way of life now, of keeping an eye on my food intake and having a little bit of what makes you feel good.

The only people I talk to about this WOE is you lot; thanks for being there for the last few week

A former colleague of mine who has tried every diet in existence and with whom I frequently sometimes meet to catch up on the latest gossip inquired the other day why I wasn't having my usual cappuccino but an ordinary black coffee instead. Before I knew what I was doing, I had said 'because it's a fast day'. Explained a bit about 5/2 and why in my view this WoE makes perfect sense from an evolutionary point of view (I am a biologist). She asked many questions, seemed interested, she has a few 'health issues', one of which is developing diabetes 2. After my explanation and replies to her many questions she concluded by saying 'Well, I don't think I'm up for this sort of thing'. Speaking about a wet blanket! It is sad really. Anyway I had to make a conscious decision not to let this dampen my enthusiasm, after all she has to decide for herself. I sent her a couple of links and refer her to them when she brings up the topic. When she brought a huge - and I mean HUGE - slab of chocolate, I could only interpret that as an attempt at undermining me. The aforementioned slab is sitting at the back of my understairs cupboard. I think it's sad that people do not seem willing to do anything to improve their health and also that they seem to be so envious of those of us who succeed. I now avoid discussing this topic with her. On a more positive note: two other former colleagues have started/will start this WoE.

Maybe that huge slab of chocolate should "disappear". Otherwise in the back of your mind it will always be there to tempt...and to remind.

All the "fad diet" articles are annoying me too, but they are of course coming from dietitians and "experts" who make a tonne of money from the diet industry, if suddenly everyone jumps onto fasting they're going to make absolutely nothing, it's just a shame they'd rather line their own pockets than actually improve the nations health.

I think the scientific research (although limited in humans) speaks for itself, not to mention the number of success stories seen throughout this forum. Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a single "I give up, it's not working" post on here at all which only gives me even more confidence that there is something in this.

I tend not to speak about it, but I did post about it on Twitter a few times and got a few eyes rolling. My cousin telling me it's dangerous and will cause you to gain weight due to survival mode (explained why this isn't the case blah blah blah) a few others told me it's better to eat small meals throughout the day to keep metabolic rate up (something I previously believed to be true as well)

My mother was very skeptical about it and didn't understand how it could work, even after explaining she was still skeptical and jumped back on the Weight Watchers train for the 7th time. I left her to it because I don't think pushing someone into believing something is the way to convince them.

She's asked me questions since and is now thinking about giving it a go, she asked me whether I thought Weight Watchers or this diet was better. I explained the sustainability of this and pointed out that while weight watchers does help her lose weight whilst shes on it, shes not very good at sticking with it for a long period of time due to the restrictions on what you can eat.

I think most skepticism comes from a lack of understanding, the false information out there surrounded by weight loss i.e, eating 6 meals a day, doesn't help either. Generally, I've found people willing to learn about the 5:2 diet rather than dismiss it off bat. Even had a couple of people asking how they can get started on it, which is great!

I only told my parents but my mum accidently told my sister (my mum is getting on in years so I think she just had a moment). My sister is a personal trainer and her response was "well that's just stupid".

Fast forward three months and I heard my niece say to my sister, "Aunty has lost a lot of weight, hasn't she", my sister agreed with her.

Every week when we have family dinner together I let her watch me like an eagle, eyeballing every thing I put on my plate, her taking mental note of how much carbs, dessert. I too watch my sister and I see the confusion on her face, I am sure she is starting to wonder how on earth can I be losing weight but still be enjoying some pasta, potato, bread, cake etc?

My response to her so far has been to have some success on this way of life. I am patiently waiting for my sister to ask me how I am doing it.

During my earlier stages (around my second month) asked me how long I would continue with this diet. I told her it was my way of life and I think I will be doing it forever (unless my blood tests off the scale bad or getting sick from fasting or some such thing happens), my mum laughed it off with a bit of a yeah sure you will do this forever attitude.

At my three month anniversary (just a few days ago) I told my mum I had lost 3.5kg, 9.5cm off my waist and 3.5cm off my hips since starting and she admitted she could see it was working and she was glad for me. She sees the results and understands why I want to keep on going with it.

So far have a small amount of success has been my best option with dealing with those who are hostile about fasting.

LONG term success will be the only thing that really convinces the true doubters, so there's not much point working on them before then. For those who are not particularly convinced, especially those so simply feel they couldn't manage to go without food, a link or two is enough and let them make their own mind up.

When I started, I had nothing to lose except weight by giving this a go. I'm still here a month later.

There's a good quote I found on Pinterest: "A year from now, you'll wish you started today" I think there will be a LOT of sceptics who find themselves thinking that in a years time!