The FastDay Forum

I read this thread as I love Hawksbee and Jacobs, I used to listen to them all the time in my old job, it makes me sad that I don't get hear them now. That said, it doesn't make me as sad as reading negative comments on this lovely forum.

I fall into the category of one of those massively overweight people for whom 5:2 doesn't seem to be working as well as I'd hoped. In 2 months I have only lost a couple of pounds but I have lost an inch off my waist and I feel good so I'm pretty happy. I think I am probably still overeating on non fast days which is something I will have to address if I want my weight loss to speed up, more exercise would undoubtedly help as well and as soon as I can have a 27 hour day I'll get right on that

I hope whichever presenter it was joins us and finds the same level of support that I have.

Yes, I don't lose so fast either but don't you think its giving us time to improve our diets and learn to distinguish true hunger so that the effect will be more lasting? The simple fact that it allows me to be human and fall off the wagon now and then seems to help me be sensible. It removes that psychological effect of immediately wanting what I can't have!

I have wondered though if DrM simply based his book on his own experiences. Maybe Caroline would know if he actually tried it out on other groups first. The point is that he gives every appearance of coming from a background of healthy eating and a decent level of activity so the term, 'eat normally' would be vastly different for him compared to most overweight people. Maybe that is where the book falls down a bit and the WOE ends up needing tweaks.

Of course, as someone said earlier, on here we do tend to have a large number of posts from the people who are struggling for various reasons. We have to remember that we have a huge number of people as members now so if only half the ones that aren't actually active posters are doing OK then its got to be a successful method.

I read this thread as I love Hawksbee and Jacobs, I used to listen to them all the time in my old job, it makes me sad that I don't get hear them now. .

Listen again? Do they have a podcast like the evening show?

Hi Miffy,

You ask if Dr M based the diet on his own personal experiences, well, from reading his book I would say that he did just that, oh, and there is nothing wrong with that otherwise we would not all be here now. The thing is that in his book he says that he could not see himself do 4 day fasts regularly as he found it too challenging personally. He then goes on to say that he did alternate day fasting for a while although he does not say how long 'a while' was but he found that socially inconvenient. That is when he hit on the idea of 5:2 but he modified that further because he was unable to sustain eating all his calories in one meal like Dr Varady does. To maintain he decided to fast for one day a week, hence 6:1 for his maintenance.

I think it is possibly a fair thing to say that by the time he worked out his winning formula his body had been used to fasting in various permutations so perhaps this is why he found 5:2 so easy. The rest of us have started this from a standing still point so I'm not surprised that it is easier for some and more challenging for others but I still think the basic principle holds true for most of us and I am, personally, very grateful to the good doctor as this has changed my life.


Hope this helps answer your question,

Ballerina x

[carorees]

Changing the subject...I see that DrM has posted on his forum that he has been invited to speak in the House of Commons about the diet and also that he has been giving interviews about the diet all over the world! I'm fascinated to know what the outcome of talking to the MPs will have! Erik Pickles to join???

That's really encouraging he's been asked to speak to HOC - I'll watch this with great interest

It's not clear whether in those with normal insulin sensitivity a low carb diet is especially beneficial (though I think it is for those who have insulin resistance. Second, not everyone is willing to give up carbs and last, if it's not sustainable, it's not worth attempting.

Thank you, Carorees! I'm down 28 pounds in 22 weeks, and while I'm very happy about the 28 pounds, I think I'm more pleased about the 22 weeks. Not only have I been able to stick to this woe, I can easily see sticking to this or something like it for the rest of my life. I'm not sitting here telling myself, "I can't wait until I hit my target so I can never fast ever again!"

One thing I think tomtanks may or may not appreciate is that this woe seems to affect appetite (well at least my appetite, ymmv) in two ways. First, it gets you used to not eating when you are hungry and gets your mind in touch with what it means to be both hungry and satisfied (by contrast) so you don't start out a meal satisfied and eat until you're stuffed to get that same contrast. Second, budgeting your calories on fast days leads one to seek out and find the high-fiber, high-protein, low-calorie foods that lead to satiety. This carries over to feed days, and you find yourself actually craving this type of food.

If everyone was craving and eating that type of food, I don't think tomtanks would object at all, right? The type of foods I'm talking about don't include the refined carbs and sugars.

Ballerina
I wasn't aware that I had said Dr M had 'made a shed load of money' from his book. All I did was to ask if he had based the idea purely on his own experience or if there had been any sort of trials done before he published to see if what worked for him would do the job for lots of people. All the other research seems to have centred round groups doing ADF or similar regimes.

If you take into account his background then it seems sensible to assume that he would probably be eating a lot better diet to start with than some of the people buying the book so that his interpretation of 'eat normally' might not be that of a person with a serious weight issue. His diet was probably just slight out of skew but enough to cause a gradual gain so that 5:2 would easily give him sufficient deficit on just 2 days. Simply cutting back on social drinking can be enough for some people!

I do not believe that Dr M published for any other reason than that he was excited at finding a way that had the potential to help loads of us improve our health. I just wonder if he thought it through fully before he allowed the publishers to take over. I am deeply offended at your comments directed towards me. Do not lump me in with the low carb evangelists. I eat my way and allow others to find their own path.

Oh Miffy,

I'm mortified, I'm so sorry, I know you didn't say that, it had been mentioned by someone else and I just kind of lumped it all together, apoplogies for that, my mistake. Please do not take offence, none was meant. I agree with you that Dr M published for no other reason that he wanted to help people, and I am certainly one of those. I also bought his book and I definately have no objection to him making money from it.

I do not lump anyone, least of all you, in with any sort of evangelism and like you and loads of others on here, I do my own thing and quite right that we do.

We have obviously crossed wires somewhere here and I blame myself for that completely so can we please kiss and make up a sthis thread sems to have gone a little bit odd,

Ballerina x

[carorees]

I have moved some of the contentious posts on this thread to the Staff Room for consideration by the moderating team (and tidied up the remaining posts so they make sense). Now you all behave while the teachers have a conflab!

No prob, Ballerina. We are all entitled to mistake.

Apologies in advance if this comes through twice but I sent it once and it wandered off somewhere!

Caroline, I wish him joy with the HOC! A couple of years ago when all the obesity stuff hit the headlines Slimming World was asked to set up a group specifically for the MPs. They ended up having to re-write the members instruction book as the MPs found it too difficult!

Thank you, mine was a BIG one,

Ballerina x

[carorees]

Caroline, I wish him joy with the HOC! A couple of years ago when all the obesity stuff hit the headlines Slimming World was asked to set up a group specifically for the MPs. They ended up having to re-write the members instruction book as the MPs found it too difficult!

*rolls eyes*

Caroline, I wish him joy with the HOC! A couple of years ago when all the obesity stuff hit the headlines Slimming World was asked to set up a group specifically for the MPs. They ended up having to re-write the members instruction book as the MPs found it too difficult!

And this is a surprise because...???