The FastDay Forum

Hi,

I am new to the 5:2 diet and there seems to be conflicting information over the fasting day. It seems that it needs to be 24 hours and so if I fast from 10am to 10am will that work? Bear in mind that pre fast I have breakfast at 7am. I am planning on having 500 calories in that 24 hour period. Please help!

[Moogie]

The 24 hour method you describe is the watered down version of the diet as described by Mimi in The Fast Diet book. While you may lose some weight doing this it won't maximise your results as your calorie reduction won't be as great as doing the original method as per Dr Mosley.

The 'original' method is to go to sleep on a feed day, wake up on your fast day and consume no more than 500 cals during that day - then go to bed, wake up on a feed day and eat as normal. This has yielded great results for many of us, but doesn't mean it is the 'only' or 'right' way. Myself I like to start my fast after dinner the night before, and then consume my 500cals at dinnertime on the fast day, and not eat again until breakfast the next day.

By all means try the 10am-10am version and see if it gets you the results you want. If it works for you, that's great

Great thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I will try both methods this week and see which one works best for me. Thank you!

Yeh its taken me a while to get my head round that too! I was confused at first!
I must admit,the original diet as described by Moogie, i find a bit daunting ..have only done it twice..first time was fine,second time i really struggled.
Congrats to those hardy souls who can do it!
I have tried 8-8 a.m, 6pm - 6 pm,and am going to try 16:8 where you fast for 16 hrs and have an 8 hpur window to eat...there's a lot about 16:8 on the site
I think picking my own hours plus sticking to 1500 cals on feed days will give me weight loss and more importantly,longterm health benefits
when i feel i can,will do the original
Its magic how much we can mix it up on this plan! X good luck,keep positive!

Sorry,i dup'd my reply !
xx