The FastDay Forum

Is anyone else fed up of the negativity surrounding the 5:2? Whilst not rubbing peoples noses in my weight loss as I prefer people to notice on their own (I remember how awful I felt when slim friends went on about their weight loss) so I would never do the same but after a couple of people have asked me, I am met with such negativity at how bad it must be for me! Its insane! It doesnt matter that I have done a science degree or read as many scientific papers on it that I could. Soooo fed up of being criticised. Will continue on 5:2 to prove people wrong but wondered if others experience the same and how they cope? Luckily my mum and I are doing it together for the support.

Please excuse typos, posted before get chance to correct! Doh!

Oh I can edit! Thanks carorees! Doh!

i find I have certain "friends" who will try to sabotage any efforts to lose weight if they find out Im following any kind of diet. often those who are heavier are worst. This is why Im not really telling anyone atm

[carorees]

Horseygal: you can edit your posts you know to correct typos!

Noone has really dared criticise me for doing 5:2, they know I would bore the pants off them about the science until I had won the argument!!! Though I am trying to make an effort not to get too evangelical about it!

I have exactly the same negativity from my closest friends - they just don't believe any of it. These are the same friends who take the mick of out me for being overweight in the first place. Good friends :-/

I think 5:2 more than anything I've ever seen has divided people between those who don't believe it and those which are interested and/or try it. At work it is a different story - probably because they see me most days, there are now 5 people in my office doing it because they've seen the results in me after 8 weeks (despite continuing the fun times on feed days)

I quite agree and after having had to argue my way around various other 'diet choices' in the past, this time, I have decided to keep this WOL to myself for now. Well... I've told 2 friends who also struggle with thier weight as they appreciate the info.... I have just become very good at planning my social life around any times I will be required to eat with people. Saves the questions and criticism. CBA!!
I also have a Biomedical science degree!!

I guess I will have to explain it to my husband when I eventually get to live with him again(!!) but I know he will be like 'oh, ok, whatever'..... he's used to my 'diets' LOL

jb x

[carorees]

The diet does seem to have a strong appeal to us nerds!

[Debs]

I had an interesting conversation this morning, refusing some food because I was fasting and mentioned it. She asked and I said that it had good scientific backing which is why I am doing it. She immediately said that the results would be deliberately skewed!!
I asked why they would do that but didn't get much of a response, I think she is a conspiracy theorist and given her views on flouride, vaccinations etc., I suspect he thinks 'they' are all out to get us!
Will keep the conversation well away from food etc.!!

I think most of the people against the 5:2 haven't got a clue how it works, they just see the 'fast' word and presume we're all starving our selves to death!
I'm finding it easier to just do it and say nothing, I've got all the support/encouragement I need from my OH and on here...the proof will be in the pudding ...pardon the pun!

Well, to be honest, i heard about this diet from people talking on another forum and i was skeptical about it. I ordered the book and read it in a day which furthered by skepticism as i did not like the style of writing in the book. It was very pseudosciencey, lots of studies on mice, not much on humans, lots of anecdotal 'success stories', and i noticed a few key pseudoscientific words in the book like 'holistic' ( there was others but iv forgot now ). And just the general feel of the book, the style of writing, seemed just like they were trying to sell something sugar coated and cherry picked to make it seem more than it is. Exaggerated claims, jumping to conclusions and publication bias all come to mind.

Then i watched the horizon program which i found much more appealing. Maybe just because of the verification of seeing the researchers and what they were doing, it made it more real. That along with doing some searches online to see the studies that have been done, im starting to be more persuaded. But i still hold onto some of my skepticism until i see large scale conclusive studies on humans proving the health benefits other than weight loss. I agree fasting causes weight loss as your overall calorie consumption is reduced, but until i see more proof of any additional benefits ( like for your brain ) Im staying on the fence. I am not overweight so i am not in a high risk category for diabetes, cancer, stroke ect in the first place, so i need to see proof this works for already healthy people. Just staying slim gives you a good chance of living a longer healthier life, is there any point to fasting for already slim healthy people? These things are not yet known.

Demi, I agree with all you have said. Back in August I and many others were sold by a very well made tv prog plus a v simple concept to improve health, weight loss was just an aside. As you say, the human research on so much of IF still needs to be done.
However as can be seen on so many forums, this way of eating appears to be doing a lot of people a lot of good, both physically and mentally. At its most simple I think 5:2 clearly conveys the message that almost all of us should just eat less.

Yes I thought the book was a bit cheesy but I suppose they had to write it in a way to appeal to all audiences. I would like to see more research done on humans but my thinking is that this WOL is doing more good than harm and I have nothing to lose but weight!

If anyone asks me about my weight loss, I call it restricting calories 2 days a week rather than use the word fast.

Only time will tell once they do the research and gather all the information together. We will see. At this point though, it is definitely early to be making claims such as 'fasting makes you smarter' because there have not been, as far as i am aware, any studies on humans to suggest that. What is found to be true in mice and rats is not necessarily the same for humans and that is something very important to remember before we get ahead of ourselves here.

[carorees]

There's a link in resources somewhere to an online mental agility test that Dr M did to see if fasting had improved his mental faculties. We should all do it and then again in 6 months to see if there is any change!

Well, to be honest, i heard about this diet from people talking on another forum and i was skeptical about it. (...)That along with doing some searches online to see the studies that have been done, im starting to be more persuaded. But i still hold onto some of my skepticism until i see large scale conclusive studies on humans proving the health benefits other than weight loss. I agree fasting causes weight loss as your overall calorie consumption is reduced, but until i see more proof of any additional benefits ( like for your brain ) Im staying on the fence.

Demi, I couldn't agree with you more! I found 5:2 interesting enough to approach it as an experiment for myself, aiming for weight loss. I do not recommend it to anyone else yet, because I feel there is too much information not yet available. I made this choice for myself, but I do not want to be responsible for others, when there are so many unknowns with regard to long term effects (and sustainability) of weight loss, and to the other presumed benefits. That being said, my OH was so impressed that he recently joined me, so we have a small observational study going (more anecdotes )
While I appreciate Mosley's two documentaries, its all still a bit too anecdotal for me, jumping to conclusions, extrapolating, confirmation bias. It raises a lot of sceptic red flags for me (fad-alert, "revolutionising",etc.), but there is some science behind it. Although many of the presented studies were not on the 5:2 approach, but on other types of intermittent fasting.
It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? A relatively "simple solution", for overweight that doesn't require NHS resources? Can be done by almost everyone? No side effects? No expensive foodstuffs (you even save money)? No exercise? No giving up the good life? So I am fasting while sitting on the fence, hoping sincerely that this works but not really daring to believe it!