The FastDay Forum

I am only on my third week of 5:2 but am losing about 3lbs a week by combining it with eating better/slow carb(Lost 40 pounds prior to starting 5:2) - Which I still follow on feed days, and have tried to explain it to people. Some are open because they see my results thus far but all wonder about long term. I think the issue is it is a relatively new diet that has very little scientific evidence, even though fasting in general has been around forever. Until more research has been done on it, I think we are going to get that resistence, but who cares. What I have learned from the few encounters is I am not going to say anything really until I get to my goal, then people will not be so leary.

The proof is in the results , but your right, many people are insecure in their ability to give up their constant feeding. I know in the documentary Dr M talked about how alot of research is going into fasting now for the medical benefits - It would be interesting to get some hard data.

I only talked to my mum about it I tried explaining it (badly) so I was thrilled when I could just send her the link to watch eat fast live longer when it was played here, she is now doing it also.Besides that I tried to tell a friend about what I'm doing and without listening she just shut me down, that wont work, sound silly 5:2 so in the end I just shut up, she has had gastric bypass from what ive seen I'll take the slower 5:2 lifestyle any day. My husband was also sceptical at first also but as he is seeing results with me so is asking more and more questions he doesn't need to loss weight but is considering just for the other possible health benefits

I've been dealing with people telling me that I shouldn't fast while I'm sad (my auntie died on Saturday). I didn't fast for a week but yesterday I felt like trying and I succeeded.
Somehow, I feel that fasting is getting me back to normal function. It's the first thing I did; I didn't want to clean the house, work, see my friends but managing to fast made me feel good. I don't think that non-fasters get it though...

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt, TML13.

I get a lot of "why don't you just try (other diet method)?" Recently from a thin person suggesting I eat low carb. I quite truthfully responded that I had lost a lot of weight that way but put it all back on.

Thank you, MaryAnn.

I just got shut down on Calorie Count because I posted asking if anyone else was doing 5:2 up there! The knee jerk reaction was almost funny if it hadn't been so sad. My response to them is below, if anyone's interested

"Thank you for your email. I do indeed respect the mandate of your website but I was somewhat shocked by the narrow minded and uninformed reaction of your moderator. 5:2 is in no way, shape or form a 'starvation' diet. This method is backed by many years of research, dating back to the 1940's and has proven to have major health benefits.

I would have appreciated it if before dismissing it out of hand the moderator had taken the time to research 5:2 and the scientific evidence. Given the plethora of ads on your site devoted to ridiculous claims from the diet industry, and reading some of the posts from your members, I am horrified that you would have such a knee jerk reaction without doing the research. I can only assume that the revenues you receive from your advertisers have coloured your judgement and you are determined to perpetuate the current methods of weight loss which, given that we have our highest level of obesity in our history, obviously is not working in the long term.

If you do indeed have the interests of your users in mind, perhaps more openness to new scientific research into weight loss would be advisable. Again, I am appalled that you did not do more research.

Sincerely,"

Sod them! You will be welcome here...

Thanks CreakyPete, hope you don't mind but I'm going to steal your slogan, anti-gravity for the masses, absolutely love it, and you're right, sod 'em! I never hear that in Canada, oh how I miss the UK!

Thankfully I haven't had any naysayers about 5:2 but I do get the occaional "You're still doing that?!" Funny how people don't say that if you admit you attend Weight Watchers. I think too many people want a crash diet that loses a lot of weight fast and thus begin the yo-yo dieting over the years. Our world is too much about the here & now and not always looking forward to a lifestyle change that will last.

I wish Michael Mosley or someone else would do a follow up programme. I think the only way to get the word out that 5:2 is safe and works for a lot of people is to do another respected documentary showing the latest science and evidence of the success of people who've been doing this for a decent length of time. Those who started last August are nearing their 1 year mark - surely evidence it's not a dangerous fad?! And it would give me a way to say to my friends - 'look I'm doing this perfectly normal thing, you should try it', rather than being afraid to bring it up and be labelled a looney!

amusingly they have active threads about raspberry ketones ("harmful if swallowed"), Visalus shake diets etc.

about.com is a despicable content farm, best avoided anyway.

I've just seen this thread and I thought I'd add my experience of this, a few people at work have noticed my change in lifestyle and have been quite interested. A couple however try to poo poo my results and how I do things when I explain to others what I do, especially one of them who used to be very sporty when they were younger. Particularly when I mention going to the gym on fast days and they are horrified telling me a shouldn't be working out when not eating food! People associate fasting with not eating anything which really annoys me, I tend to go to the gym an hour after my evening meal on fast days and I so much energy it's untrue!
It's also funny that the person most complaining about the "lifestyle change" is also quite a bit on the tubby side! I'm pretty much obese at the moment still but loosing 8lbs over 3.5 weeks is great for me and i'm not eating massive meals on NFD either, I just eat what I need.

If I said to someone, "You are fat enough, don't put on any more weight" I would, quite rightly be accused of being rude yet overweight people feel they can say to my face, "Don't lose any more weight you are thin enough"! I find it strange that obese folk think I would really take dietary advice from them.

Ballerina x

I just wanted to say that to many people and cultures fasting does mean not eating so it is not out of this world if someone thinks that when someone is fasting they don't eat. A brief explanation though should be enough.

BTW, I don't know how some of you make it to exercise on a fast day. I feel that even walking around the house is a huge task!!!

I guess I have an advantage being Indian, I can just say it's religious (I did fast for many years in my 20s for religious reasons - every Thursday - it involved restricted calories, essentially).