The FastDay Forum

Hi I'm a generally fit 32 year old male and have been doing the 5:2 diet for 2 months (bar 3 busy weeks). I'm 6ft, 13 stone and am doing the diet for internal benefits as opposed to external ones.

Instead of doing the fasting twice a week, I've been doing it once but for 36 hours. This includes having nothing to eat from 8pm Tuesday, 12 hours gap, breakfast, 12 hours gap, tea, 12 hours gap, normal brekkie thursday morn.
600 cals altogether.


Is this going to be still beneficial?



(also I'm considering extending it to 48 hours together and having the 1200 cals altogether...would this be much better or not?)

[carorees]

Hi Fre3bird and welcome!

I think this is what Dr M is currently doing, and he thinks there will be benefits. Of course no one really knows. Some of the experts he spoke to thought that a complete 24 hour fast followed by a low cal meal (or normal meal if you are not wanting to lose weight) would be better than 3 x 12 hour fasts. I would think that doing 24 hours twice a week would be easier than one long 48 hour fast but whatever works for you. My OH who is underweight if anything is doing 20-24 hours fast followed by normal eating once or twice a week depending on how he feels.

Probably any IF system where you have some longer periods of not eating than the normal breakfast, lunch, dinner routine would bring benefits but we just don't know how long is really needed.

Sorry that's not much help is it?

Caroline,

What you are describing sounds similar to Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat idea. He recommends 24 hour fast 2x per week. Stop eating at 7 at night and have a meal at 7 the following night.

Michael Mosley has had his blood workup done, and he did get good results from his efforts as well.

[carorees]

Michael Mosley has had his blood workup done, and he did get good results from his efforts as well.

Is that since going to 6:1? I hadn't seen that...is there a link?

Hi fre3bird, to be honest what you are proposing is well within the standard 5:2 fast diet prescription, which runs the 500 or 600 cals over a calendar day i.e. pretty much 36 hours going from dinner on pre-fast day to breakfast on post-fast day. If you extend to 48 hours then that is outside the normal parameters but not a problem if it works for you.

Having some food intake at regular 12 hour gaps (rather than having a longer gap before a larger meal) is what Dr M does and the main advantage (apart from that you might find it easier) is if you are nervous about the effect of not taking in protein for a more prolonged period. There is some discussion about this in the More protein debate topic.

Contrariwise, as C has pointed out, some experts think that a longer total fasting period might be more beneficial. You pays your money...

[Tracieknits]

Your once for 36 hours is basically what we do for one of our fast days. We go from dinner on Tuesday until breakfast on Thursday with just one 500 calorie meal on Wednesday night.

The difference is we do this twice per week, not once.

I personally would find 48 hours much too difficult.