Anyone on it? Tried it? I should stress first of all, it's not your traditional 'diet' as such. It's a lifestyle change for good. Basically for two alternate days out of every 7 you restrict your intake of calories to 500 for women and 600 for men. The other 5 you can pretty much do whatever you like - although I am pretty healthy most of the time anyway. It is great for weight loss if that is your thing, but it also helps to reduce your risk of stroke, certain cancers and other health issues. When the body has reduced calories, it switches to 'repair' mode, resulting in lots of health benefits. If you are doing it for weight loss, they reccommend that once you reach your target weight you switch to one fast day a week. I have been doing it about a month and have lost 6 kg, and feel really alert and great on my fast days.
Isn't that like the dietary point system? You add up food points. But just because you only have 10pts out of 50 one day, it doesn't mean it's healthy to make it up by having 90pts the next so I can't see the reasoning for doing what you want for five days out of seven?
I am familiar with it. It's basically a type of intermittent fasting devised by Michael J. Mosley, who wrote The Fast Diet. As I have mentioned before, I do intermittent fasting daily, where I fast for approximately 20 hours at least 6 days a week, which has the same benefits in terms of cellular repair, fat loss, increased insulin sensitivity, cognitive enhancement, etc. There are several different forms of IF that are commonly practiced. In fact, 5:2 doesn't sound much different from the Eat Stop Eat protocol introduced by Brad Pilon, where basically you fast for 24 hours 1-2 days per week. The only difference here, it seems, is that there is some caloric intake. Overall, it sounds like a step in the right direction for people not cut out for daily fasting. I still think it's better to have a fasting window than to simply restrict calorie intake over a 24 hr. period since you don't get benefits to the same extent that you would if you went without eating for an entire 16-24 hour period.
Not really. Some people look at fasting from a calorie reduction perspective. I (and many others) look at it from a hormonal perspective -- esp. regarding insulin regulation and increased levels of human growth hormone, which helps with fat loss and muscle gain. The notion of calories in / calories out infuriates me because it's so outdated, yet people cling to it. If people are going to focus on calories, they need to focus on the types of calories they consume, since not all calories are the same. Calories from carbohydrates are stored and utilized by the body much differently than calories from fat and, to a lesser extent, protein. I think calorie counting is stupid and largely ineffective for some people. Yeah, you can lose weight this way, but it's not the optimal way to burn fat.
Water, but also coffee and sometimes tea. I often make something called Bulletproof coffee on my days off while fasting, which is coffee blended with grass-fed butter and MCT oil. While there is a fairly significant caloric intake associated with this, it doesn't take you out of a fasted state since there is no significant insulin response associated with an intake of pure fat (unlike with carbs and protein). It actually enhances the fat burning that occurs during the fast. Coconut oil and butter are both suitable to consume while doing intermittent fasting, though I usually prefer to drink just water or black coffee while fasting most of the time.
