The FastDay Forum

How to do the two days a week :

2 days back to back recommended, for "ease" and possible extra health benefits. (p46)

Carbs restricted to 50g per day on the 2 days, "because they make you hungry"

Eat foods that are high in protein, healthy fats, low fat dairy, some vegetables and fruit. "No calorie counting" but a set of tables listing number of portions of different food types based on weight and age in Appendix D - proposes a cap of 1100 calories for men and 1000 for women.

5-6g of salt per day, increase if you get headaches, not applicable if you have high blood pressure or take diuretics.

Protein - 45g of tuna is a serving, minumum 4 servings per day up to 12 for women or 14 for men. I make that 44g of protein minimum, 132 / 154g maximum.

Dairy - up to three servings (200ml milk, 75g cottage cheese, 80-90g plain whole milk yoghurt etc)

Fruit - one lower carb fruit, can be replaced with an extra veg. 2 handfuls raspberries, 2" / 5cm slice of melon, 1/2 grapefruit, 3 apricots (fresh or dried) etc

Veg - five servings from list of low carb veg at 80g each.

2 litres of low calorie drinks. Milk if used is taken from above dairy allowance.

[carorees]

Sounds ridiculously complicated and unless being very careful on the non-diet days many people are not going to lose any weight.

What do they say about non-diet days? Are they low carb too?

Mind you keeping carbs to 50g per day on fast days seems like a good idea for 5:2 as well IMHO.

Non-diet days - whole grain only, between 6-9 portions for women, based on starting weight- a portion is one Weetabix, one slice of wholesale bread, two heaped tablespoons of cooked pasta, couscous or quinoa, one small potato. It's very complicated, in my opinion.

Wow! Is it very realistic for everyday life? Sounds like it might have been designed for a clinical trial. Oh... it was...

Looks convoluted but a breast cancer survivor may have a different view on it.

Exactly, if you're hugely motivated then you would stick to it. But the rest of us have other things to do...

[carorees]

Wow! Is it very realistic for everyday life? Sounds like it might have been designed for a clinical trial. Oh... it was...

I'm a breast cancer survivor, but I'll stick to 5:2 thank you very much.
I want to enjoy the rest of my life, and not be restricted by diet.
Everything in moderation is my motto.

Yet another over complication that sets people up to fail so that they keep buying diet books and products.

The industry will fail once we succeed.
That is what motivates me.

I have also had breast cancer & there were no guidelines available from the NHS eleven years ago. I went to the privately run Bristol Cancer Centre who recommended non-dairy & to go vegetarian, mainly to avoid growth hormones fed to animals. I hate soya milk so I use oat milk & for dairy have goats milk that seemed less messed around with than cows, & largely organic fruit, veg & meat. This is supposed to reduce the chemical load of pesticides etc. Well I'm still here & at least some guideline is available for the mainstream now which will help some people. However perhaps they will find 5:2 instead? I hope so & of course there is other research going on now which is better than before.
I am sticking with 5:2 to finally help get rid of the Tamoxifen weight gain I unwittingly acquired .
Isis

...5-6g of salt per day, increase if you get headaches...

Interesting - another possibility for those of us that still get headaches/dizziness on fasting days even when drinking plenty of water?

What do they say about non-diet days? Are they low carb too?

They're Mediterranean, about 40% carbs. As "Mediterranean" is a geographical term I don't find it helpful, so I'll summarise when I have time.

The book is 350+ pages BTW !

...5-6g of salt per day, increase if you get headaches...

Interesting - another possibility for those of us that still get headaches/dizziness on fasting days even when drinking plenty of water?

Medical science does not recognise water as having anything to do with headaches. That's taken from the preamble to a clinical trial paper on the subject.

So the notion of "drinking plenty of water" is pretty debateable. See what Tim Noakes thinks.

In low carb dieting it is well understood that less carbs means less sodium retention and loss of water and sodium to urine. Drinking more IMHO increases the sodium loss, so you're taking a sodium deficiency from reduced carbs and making it worse by adding more water.

Drink bovril or bouillon or consomme soup or something, perhaps even mineral water, and you'll get salt / sodium along with your water.

[carorees]

Mediterranean, to me says red wine, olives, tomatoes, fish, squid, garlic, red wine, hummus, pasta, pizza, tiramisu, ice cream, more red wine....do you think all of those would be ok?

Sounds like my perfect diet if I could swap the red wine for rose!