My partner and I have been doing 5:2 since the Panorama program in August and have both lost weight.
We have found that one of the wonderful things about this way of life is how easy it is to loose weight gained on holiday, at the end of September we spent a week with friends in France where we ate and drank whatever we wanted, on return we went straight back onto 5:2 and within two weeks had lost the extra weight 2-3lbs. The same has happened post Christmas.
We are also doing this for the health benefits, we exercise a lot and have no problems exercising on or after fast days . In fact I regularly swim +plus one mile following fast days. We are both in our 60's and want to keep fit.