One more thing: I am enjoying the feeling of being satisfied, of doing things other than eating when I'm not hungry. It is a challenge, but I'm also enjoying it. Even on my non-fast days, lunch-time may come around and I'm not hungry. I don't eat.

In the documentary, they talk about how "meal-time" is a made up thing. Long ago, people ate when they were hungry, not because it was "meal-time". Even today, there are cultures that only eat when hungry.

kj

Been doing it a bit and it is strangely helpful.

Very counter intuitive, I must say.

Thanks for the info.

NYCTwister,

I was wondering: Do you have any information on the pros or cons of taking vitamins during any of the fast days?

kj

I don't since vitamins are best taken with food.
If you pulverized them, and mixed then with water, I can't see too much of a problem.
Bear in mind I'm FAR from an expert.

Thx

So, I have completed my third week and I have lost 20 pounds. It seems my weight loss is starting to slow down. I think it was a lot of water weight loss at first, and now I'm into slower fat loss. I still feel great and I'm getting more used to the routine. I actually look forward to each week because the two days of modified fast add variety to the week. I also really like that I can eat anything I want on my "feed" days. I'm still being pretty reasonable on those days, I do eat plenty of healthy food, but I still get in all my favorites like pizza, tacos, burritos, and ... bacon.

So far, my version of the 5-2 diet is working very well.

Best of all, I don't have to shell out cash to anyone like Jenny Craig, I don't have to go to the GYM, I don't have to have special food, and I am actually spending less money, not more.

For anyone interested, I'll post a summary of what I'm doing next.

kj

Did you consume more than 2300 calories before you started the 5:2?

Here is my version of the 5-2 diet:

I prepare a very healthy drink with cucumber, carrots, red bell peppers, zucchini, Kale or Spinach, and apple. It all goes in a blender with added filtered water and blended up. I make mine with plenty of water. Everything goes in with skins, seeds, and all. I do my two modified fasting days consecutively. On each day, I am eating anywhere from 200 to 300 calories. The first fast day, I eat all the calories throughout the morning by alternating a small cup of water when hungry and the next time I'm hungry, a small cup of veggie drink. Starting around 1:00 PM, I only drink water the rest of the day and evening. The second fast day, I start with just water, and then around 1 PM on the second day, I start alternating a small cup of water and a small cup of veggie drink when I start feeling hungry. (Per the BBC Doc "Eat, Fast, Live Longer" (Aka EFL): women: 400 to 500 calories, men: 500 to 600 calories, and this is eaten in one meal around lunchtime.)

Five days per week, I eat anything I want, any quantities. I am being reasonable. I'm actually eating a bit less than I would normally on those days because the two days of modified fast shrinks the stomach. (Per EFL, the average person on the study only ate 110% of their normal consumption on their feeding days. They found it was very difficult for people to over-consume after their stomachs had shrunk during modified fasting).

My "exercise" routine is I incorporate as much walking as possible into my normal (Office job) day. Two days per week, I spend around 5-10 minutes getting my heart rate up by going up and down stairs. (Per EFL, only 3 minutes per week is really required).

Here are some interesting bits of info from the BBC EFL documentary:

Scientific findings:

1. Lab results show that in a 7 day fasting test, subjects metabolism increased, not decreased (contrary to most traditional views). Metabolism doesn't start to decline until after months of starvation, resulting in dangerously low fat levels when the body determines that it is more beneficial to conserve energy than to support your efforts to go out and "find" food.
2. Lab results showed dramatic benefits to health markers such as cholesterol levels with fasting. They claim there has been NO other non-chemical, non-harmful way to obtain these results.
3. Lab results showed that on the 5-2 diet cholesterol markers were not impacted at all by whether the subjects ate high fat or low fat on their feeding days. In other words, you can eat anything you want. (I would think that as with anything in life, a little common sense would go a long way.)
4. There are many ways to go about a low calorie diet, including: A modified fast 2 days per week and eating anything you want 5 days (the 5-2 diet), fasting once a month and having a slightly lower caloric intake throughout the month, or not fasting at all, but having a significantly lower caloric intake every day.
5. They discovered that when we eat, our brains trigger "growth" mode where cells divide. When we don't eat (like when we sleep), our brains trigger "heal" mode where our cells stop dividing and we focus on the health of the existing cells. However, in our modern societies, we simply eat too much, and that offsets the balance between "growth" and "heal" modes.

Evolutionary theory seems to support their findings:
1. Throughout human evolution, it was common to go have "feast and famine" days every single month. People routinely fasted for one or a few days before finding food. In other words, we were not "wired" to eat every day without giving our bodies a rest.
2. People did not eat "three squares" per day. It was much more common for people to eat when hungry and when food was available, not because it was "lunch time".
3. When people went a few days without food, if their metabolism went down, it would decrease their chances of survival, not increase them. The notion that fasting doesn't work because it lowers your metabolism contradicts the logic of evolution.

For me, the real "kicker" from the BBC documentary was the following:
1. In lab animal tests, a low calorie diet resulted in healthier animals with 40% increased lifespan.
2. In lab human tests spanning over twenty years, subjects who started the test in their early to mid thirties, now in their mid fifties have health measures of a twenty year old, not a fifty year old.

KJ

I wasn't really counting calories, but I would say probably around 2,000 to 2,500 calories. Perhaps I averaged around 2,300.

kj