The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone, this is my first post on here so here goes. I got told about the 5:2 diet from a friend at work and I could see the results fairly quickly so I thought I would try something similar. But instead of 5:2 I decided to go for 2:5. First things first, I am taking a dietary supplement that suppresses my apatite, and I know I wouldn't be able to do this without it. I train mon, tues, thurs, fri, although its only on the bike I still manage to burn off 400+ calories in an hour. So combined with eating no more than 500 calories mon-fri and burning 400+ mon-tues-thurs-fri I've managed to shift alot of weight (well I think so). When I started just over a month ago I was 16st 8lb and I've just weighed myself now at 15st 1lb. I owe it all to the dietary suplement because I'm very rarly hungry and if I am it's usually at about 22:00. Saturday and Sunday I eat pretty much whatever I want, usually a takeaway on a Saturday night with a beer. I would say I would like to get to 14st, but I genuinely know I am going to get to this target so there is no longer any doubt.

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my journey so far.
Ashley .

I'm not sure I understand how many calories you eat on the 5 and how many on the 2 but I got the impression that you're eating far less than you should (unless I'm reading it all wrong).

What's that supplement that manages to reduce your appetite?

Hi TML and izzy. On Monday through to Friday I eat 500 calories per day, and i go to the gym monday tuesday, thursday and Friday burning off 400+ calories each time i train. Then have two days off the tablets (saturday-sunday) so I can eat something nice with out feeling bloated. Basically instead of 5:2 I'm doing 2:5. It's going great so far. Today ive had an apple, a go ahead pack and a weight watchers meal, to be fair the tablets starting to wear off now and starting to get peckish but it is 1:45am lol. The apatite suppressant is called ephedrine along with caffeine and aspirin. No there not prescribed, but from a highly trusted friend. Not 100% sure on the legality of ephedrine :-/, but it's working fine with me so I'm going to stick at it.
Hope this makes more scenes . Sorry for any confusion.

Sounds like a good recipe for an eating disorder. Perhaps you should discuss this "diet" with your GP and possibly a psychologist before you continue. Definitely not 5:2 approved IMO. Please take care xx

Getting by on 500cals per day for that many days doesn't sound very healthy to me. It is speculated that one of the reasons 5:2 works so well in the long run is that your metabolism doesn't slow down (as it seems to on other diets) because you are eating normally 5 days a week. if you have to take an illegal drug in order to make this work, that is a bit worrying. Are you in such a hurry to lose weight? 21 lbs in one month is very fast...

Please take care, AJ225.

Hi AJ!

Years ago my sister went on a "protein sparing fast" just drinking this liquid protein stuff. (Oprah lost a lot of weight the same way.) My sis lost a whole bunch of weight and looked great (so did Oprah). She was convinced that she would maintain her weight loss by just exercising. NOT! She put the weight back on very quickly and then gained a bunch more. (So did Oprah) At about the same time, there were cases of people who died because of that diet. Since that time my sister has lost small amounts of weight with great difficulty, often yo-yoing. She is now dealing with type 2 diabetes, weight, and stress on joints.

My sister--in-law lost a lot of weight dieting along with injections from her doctor. She put it back on in short order along with more.

If it sounds too good to be true, it really is--and it might be dangerous!

Ephedrine... that rings a bell...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... -live.html

[Betsysgr8]

I used to take a "supplement" that contained ephedrine and ended up in the hospital emergency room hyperventilating because it was just too much for me. I'd much rather work with my hypothyroid and stress of life than feel like that again. Good luck on your journey Ashley but you might want to consider a slower pace without chemical "help".

Re: YorkshirePudding's link: interestingly, in the US ephedrine is banned for use as a diet aid, but is still legal in cold remedies (it is a good decongestant). Because it is also used to synthesize crystal meth, the quantities any person can buy each day are very limited.

AJ have you tried a fast WITHOUT the drugs? Maybe although you couldn't do it before, you could do it now (having broken the habit of eating during the week)

At least TRY it, for all the nice people on here that are clearly worried about you, and for your health.

Take care

Ephdedrine is really dangerous when taken consistently - you could permanently damage your heart. Please be careful - we're worried about you!

Oh gosh, please take care of yourself, you will lose weight doing 5:2 the way it was designed, it might be a bit slower, but it's a much healthier way to lose than under eating and using appetite suppressants.

We're not being unsupportive, this is a genuinely lovely forum and we are all just worried. Your body needs calories to function properly, so please please be careful.

So you're actually doing a VLCD 5 days a week with err "pharmaceutical support" and relaxing it at the weekends. Interesting, but not really intermittent fasting - more like intermittent eating.

I'm the blunt type so here goes:

You are seriously risking your health by eating this little and taking a potentially dangerous drug. Given some of the effects of that drug, you could be risking other people's lives too - for example by driving while under the influence.

Being thinner, whether for vanity or health concerns is NOT worth this kind of risk.

It is perfectly possible to do 5:2, without the drugs. I think most of us would agree that we didn't think we could do it until we tried.

My brother is a bigwig at a major pharmaceutical firm. There is NO 100% safe, side effect free and effective diet pill available on the market - the big firms are spending millions every year trying to develop one. He isn't even happy for me to take the ones that ARE licensed!

Don't do it.

opinion only.

switch to 5-2

I posted about doing a 2 day 500, 1 day 1000 and 4 day 1500 and people here had some issues about not meeting at least 2000 on one day. That post was actually wrong i meant 2000 on other days. It would be crazy to even consider under 1500 on more than 4 days a week. I think

anyhow back to your post.. dont do it!