5:2 Diet - 6 weeks in

So how have I gone with my 5:2 diet?

It's been a month now, and I've been sticking to my diet and doing quite well I thought.  To tell you the truth, I didn't know if I had lost any weight, and my clothes didn't seem to be looser.  However, I've decided that I will do the 5:2 diet as part of a lifestyle change, and hubby has decided to do it as well.

We watched Eat Fast and Live Longer, Michael Mosley's documentary on the 5:2 diet, and it was a real eye opener.  Having watched and enjoyed his Pain, Pus and Poison documentaries, I was quite keen to watch this one.

The main thing that convinced me to do 5:2 as a lifestyle choice and not just for a diet was when Mosley started talking about Insulin Like Growth Factor (IGF-1).  According to the researchers in Mosley's documentary, IGF-1 is responsible for the creation of new cells and when levels of IGF-1 levels drop, the body goes into repair mode, repairing damaged cells.  A genetic abnormality which causes low levels of IGF-1 leading to short stature also had the interesting side effect of longevity and a huge reduction in age related diseases such as diabetes, cancer and ischaemic heart disease.  Mosley found that long term caloric reduction (ie every day) was too hard, and so tried an intermittent approach, which was where 5:2 began.  He went from being prediabetic to normal sugars, and lost weight, as well as reduced blood pressure and LDL.

So, from now on, Tuesdays and Fridays are fast days.  It's easier when both of us are fasting.  If we have a dinner planned for Friday then we will move it to Thursday, but it will be interesting to see how that works out.

So far, I have dropped 2kg, though I don't feel any different.  People think I'm crazy when I say I'm on a diet, and I have to tell them "I'm not doing it for weight loss, it's for the health benefits!" so that they don't start on at me about being anorexic.

I've even started a friend on it!  He is prediabetic almost, so hopefully he will do good on it.

I found that it's getting easier to fast.  And I do feel conscious about what I am eating on my other days too. I hope that anyone else who is thinking of doing the diet has found this helpful.  Willpower on those fasting days really is the tough bit - but substituting high calorie foods for low calorie ones is what will really get you through the day (a bit hard if you don't like eating vegetables though!)