The FastDay Forum

Just received my book order: The 2 Day Diet Cookbook by Dr Michelle Harvie and Prof Tony Howell. I first heard Dr M. talking about "Michelle's" work with women and breast cancer and the implications of following 5:2.
Anyway the Cookbook has been developed from the work they have done in the past 12 years, which is detailed in their The 2-Day Diet book. Their research found that in clinical trials dieters lost fat one and a half times more quickly than calorie controlled dieters. In addition they lost more centimetres around the waist and in the longer term where more successful in maintaining their losses. Woo Hoo
Its a very user friendly "how to" book, explaining how to follow the 5:2 principles and gives a table of foods and quantities for "Restricted Day" eating together with fabulous recipes and wonderful photos.
It then discusses "Unrestricted Day" eating, again with recipes.
It also has a "Ready Reckoner" for Males and Females at the back with food servings and meal planners. One for weight-loss and another for maitenance.
They encourage people to eat "normally but sensibly" and follow the guidelines of a Mediterranean Diet on unrestricted days.
So all those people that always asking and wanting to know what they should eat on Fast Days and for ideas on what is "normal" eating....its all set out.
It cost me about 12 pounds. An excellent investment for me.
I just love it.
AND Dr. Michelle Harvie is donating all her part of the profit of this book to Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention.
You guys can probable go to a bookshop and flip through it and see if you like it - I bought mine unseen from Book Depository as I live in Australia.

Thanks Marie - it sounds good.

I have wondered, given the talk of rejigging the forums here, whether we should have a forum for 'The Two Day Diet', but I am not aware of any regulars here who are following it (it is a bit different to conventional 5:2).

Since presumably some people are doing it (it has been heavily promoted in UK by the Daily Mail) I wonder where they go for support?

Thanks for the heads up Marie -will keep an eye out for it.

Hi Marie,
I completely agree.
I've bought just about all the books out there lately relating to this woe and I think that this one is definitely the best.
Having lost both my Mum and one of my Sisters to Breast Cancer, I'm also very happy about the profits being put back into research.

I have wondered, given the talk of rejigging the forums here, whether we should have a forum for 'The Two Day Diet', but I am not aware of any regulars here who are following it (it is a bit different to conventional 5:2).

Since presumably some people are doing it (it has been heavily promoted in UK by the Daily Mail) I wonder where they go for support?

There's a Facebook page yesterday they passed 7,000 likes.

A forum section for this would be handy for disambiguation if nothing else, a sticky could highlight the differences, point people at the Genesis resources, FB page etc.

There's a bit of "anti" from the 2-day people about 5:2 with slogans like "why fast when you can eat". I suspect they were gazumped by MM hitting the New Year publication slot while they came out on Valentine's Day.

I didn't realise straight away that it was different to 5:2. But now I see the slogan on the back of the book "why fast when you can eat?" as Phil has pointed out.
Evie I'm sorry to hear about your mother and sister. Its an insidious disease.

Phil, I think you are probably right. Valentine's Day was a really strange choice of launch date for a diet book! And the underlying trial upon which they based their book has still not been published, is such a long delay normal? Is there some problem with the peer review?

Anyway, I think the diet is basically a good one and the differences to our 5:2 are skin deep. 2 consecutive days instead of 2 non-consecutive, not such a deep calorie reduction on the diet days, but more prescription on the non-diet days - in a good way. Still as you say they seem to have their own support system at least for those who do Facebook (not me!)...

But we could all use the cookbook! Would be interesting to hear a comparison between it and Mimi's new Fast Diet Recipe Book, by someone who has tried both. Marie, are you thinking of buying another recipe book in the near future?

Never know Dominic. I bought The Hairy Dieters,- as in Hairy Bikers one recently; and I am a Home economics teacher so .....

Oh I was given that one by the 'children' for Xmas, and I actually did a recipe from it the other day. But as usual we didn't have all the right ingredients so I had to cheat a bit. That's what I hate about recipe books; you either have to shop for hours to get all the right stuff or you have to re-interpret the recipe around what you have in the kitchen, and it's hard to be sure whether what you end up with bears much relation to what they intended...

hmmm Mostly i like looking at Recipe books - and I totally get it with all that shopping for ingredients thing - I hardly actually use the recipe books because I like to make up my own! But now I 'm wanting to use them for inspiration with following this woe and I'm happy to have calorie guides for particular dishes saves me calculating (and I have been).
It's also good to get some fresh ideas for healthier meals and try some different mixes of ingredients. Good excuse to buy some more books really