5:2 Fasting diet – my thoughts and experience after completing it…
Hi I am Clare writing as part of the 121 Dietitian team. Below is my own assessment of Michael Mosley’s fasting diet. Why I did 5:2 fasting diet I’m soon to graduate as a Dietitian and I have a keen interest in weight management and awareness of food content. When I heard about this diet, I knew that I would be asked about it and decided the best way to be able to give my view/understand what people were dealing with, would be to try it out myself. “Dietitians should take into account what people actually do rather than what we would like them to do” – Dr Krista Varady Note: I didn’t do the fast diet with the aim to lose weight; simply to see how it would feel and the effect it would have on my health and lifestyle. In the UK, nearly 2 in 3 adults, and 1 in 2 children, are overweight or obese. (2012) Having a BMI above 25kg/m2 puts you at higher risk of many other diet-related diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease and Cancer. this is something to be taken seriously and probably one of the biggest reasons for our world’s growing obsession with diets. * To work out your BMI: divide your weight (kg) by your height squared (m)2 e.g. if you are 57kg and 1.62m, it would be 57/2.62 = 21.8kg/m2 Dieting is no new thing; a quick search in google brings up some odd historical diets ranging from the self explanatory ‘chew and spit diet’ to eating tapeworm eggs… So what about this 5:2 fasting diet from Michael Mosley? Fasting is no new concept either. it is an important practice in a number of religions (consider lent, Yom Kippur, Ramadan) carried out to fulfill a number of purposes that include practicing self-control and purifying oneself. In the early Christian church, Wednesdays and Fridays were traditionally fast days, and those partaking would abstain from meat, fish, eggs and butter. ‘i fast twice a week’ – Luke 18:12. “gluttony makes a man gloomy and fearful, but fasting makes him joyful and courageous” – Saint Nikolai of Zicha I have a nagging suspicion that there’s some wonderful underlying truth about improved health with fasting just waiting to be discovered. Does the 5:2 fasting diet work? Start – 4.3.13 – weight 127lbs; BMI 21.8 kg/m2; serum cholesterol 3.8mmol/l Finish – 12.4.13 – weight 127lbs; BMI 21.8kg/m2 This is interesting. My weight stayed stable. Admittedly, on a couple of occasions I cheated, going a little bit over the 500kcal allowance or being sneaky and ‘fasting’ from 2pm one day to 2pm the next day and still allowing myself 500kcal in between (and having a takeaway pizza for lunch at 1.30pm just before i started). Also, this period in my life has been one of celebration and freedom from structure and responsibility. Therefore I have been eating out, throwing dinner parties and having coffee dates much more frequently than usual. So what I have found is that this diet has allowed me to do is to maintain a happy weight whilst eating in a ridiculously undisciplined fashion 5 days a week. It has also shown me that I am disciplined enough to work around food all day (in a cafe on my days off) and not give in to temptation 2 days a week. It required effort in planning and calorie counting and commitment but it brought a sense of achievement and self-control when mastered. I am aware that lowered cholesterol and blood sugars are supposed to be the other health benefits in the fast diet. Prior to starting, and in the name of science I visited my GP to measure my blood sugar and cholesterol levels, but it turned out they only measured my cholesterol (as seen above). Because of this I did not return post fast period because my cholesterol was at a healthy level on starting and I had nothing to compare my sugars to! Not very scientific after all. For anyone else wanting to try out this diet, please make sure to get your bloods checked before and after! Did I over-compensate for my fast days? Yes. Definitely. However, I think that had I started the fast diet with a genuine desire to lose weight, I would easily have been able to refrain from over-compensating. in Mike Mosleys book, Dr Krista Varady carried out a study which showed people generally did not compensate for their fast days by having 175% on a feed day. personally, because I wanted to push boundaries with this diet, I think I have proven that to see all the results you need have a motivation and be very, very strict. What are the benefits of 5:2 fasting diet? Bearing in mind that there have been no long term studies carried out in humans, here is a list of some of the believed benefits of fasting: · longevity (in mice: lowered IGF-1*) · weight loss (i have spoken with a number of people who have lost between 8lbs and 21lbs) · improves learning and memory in mice (possibility of reduced risk of Alzheimer’s?*) · improves nutritional awareness (constantly reading labels) · reduced risk of cancer (due to weight loss and decreased % body fat*) · lowered blood sugar and cholesterol levels · choose your days/ make it suit you · improved self discipline *The science bits. 1) this is a quote from Mike Mosley’s book. “The IGF-1 hormone (insulin-like growth factor) is one of the drivers which keep our bodies in go-go mode, with cells driven to reproduce. This is fine when you are growing, but not so good later in life. There is now evidence suggesting that IGF-1 levels can be lowered by what you eat. Studies on calorie restrictors suggest that eating less helps, but it is not enough. As well as cutting calories you have to cut your protein intake. Not entirely – that would be a very bad idea. It’s about sticking to recommended guidelines, something most of us fail to do. The reason seems to be that when our bodies no longer have access
