5:2 diet

[georger]

I'm not a fan of crank diets, but the 5:2 diet seems sounder than most. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5/2_diet

What's this got to do with TAM? Well there is evidence from a study with mice that "diet restriction may reduce the accumulation of age-related tubular aggregates in skeletal muscle." This is from:
"Age and diet alter skeletal muscle tubular aggregates", Age 18, Number 2/Apr, 1995, 69-78, Arthur C. Cosmas and others.

I cannot come at that level of daily calorie reduction, but 2 days a week seems quite possible and some people reduce this to 1 day. I'm desperate enough to try it. Anybody else? We could encourage each other. I've got Dr. Michael Mosley's book The Fast Diet. Any volunteers?

[georger]

The Wikipedia link doesn't work; it dislikes the 2nd colon. So either copy and paste the whole link into your browser or try this one thefastdiet.co.uk/

[Craig Lane]

Worx now Pete changed the : to a /


Thinking about what one eats is always a positive step towards weight control especially when you can't burn up calories with exercise. Keeping busy is also important as I believe we, as most primates, are browsers.
I is interesting that changing the way we eat our food can dramatically change how full we feel and the time we are satisfied. A recent test using army teams fed one team a roast dinner with a glass of water. The other team was fed the same meal but put in a blender to make a soup. The soup section were fuller longer and were more satisfied with their meal. Maybe we can take something from this and add it to the 5:2 plan. (Although not sure what scrambled egg and green tea soup will taste like.

[georger]

Soup, that's a good idea. We always have a lot of veggie soup in winter.

Thanks for fixing the Wikipedia link. That article is unnecessarily negative. There's been a lot of research on calorie restriction for at least 80 years. Not so much on intermittent calorie restriction, but it is far easier to do. How hard can it be to eat less on 2 days and as usual on the other 5? I'll let you know when we get started.

[Craig Lane]

Soup worx well and no real unpleasent chewing,and much easier for digestion to deal with.
Down side of 5:2 is the tendency to eat more than nornal on the 5 because you had next to nothing for the 2. Or is that just me being part squirrel, laying on the winter fat in case we have one. Well fixed anyway I recently spent two weeks in bed with a virus (got up in the end coz it kept stealing all the duvet) eating almost nothing in that time and lost nearly 1 Kg. Put it back on the first day up in cups of tea & coffee. Go figure. I goona give your 5:2 plan a go and I'll let you know what happens.

[georger]

Glad that you are over the dreaded lurgi.
A lot of things about the 5:2 diet are not obvious or intuitive. My first thought was that if you cut calories to 500 or 600 on the 2 non-consecutive days, then the body's usual response is to cry, "Help it's a famine, I'd better put on as much weight as possible as soon as I get a feed." This is what you found. But it doesn't happen with the 5:2, possibly because it's not total fasting or 1 day of calorie restriction is not enough to kick in this response. Instead the body goes into repair mode. You'd think you would binge on the first day after 1 of the 2 days, but experiments showed this to be only about 10% more. And of course the whole process teaches you to eat sensibly and enjoy quality rather than quantity.

[georger]

Well it's on, starting tomorrow. Muesli and skim milk for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and minestrone for dinner. Not really fasting at all, just calorie reduction for one day, followed by another day later in the week. So apart from reducing the dreaded abdominal fat, how to gauge success TAMwise? I'd be very happy with a slowing of the rate of progression. (Progression, odd word in this context, "This is progress?" as a renowned TAM humourist once said.)

[Craig Lane]

I'll join you on this one Pete. Mussli / carrot/ Soup. Got it.

Reduction of said abdominal area would certainly help as I get to haul around a big less bulk. The lighter I am the less effort should be required to shift it from one place to the next.

"Progress" is a word used by politicians to qualify building bigger bombs. So in that context ..........

[georger]

We may as well email each other, nobody else is interested. Well we did it, 600 calories in one day and no cheating. It wasn't too hard and we look forward even more to modest amounts of pizza tonight. The most onerous bit was weighing and calorie counting everything that went into the veggie soup, but now that's done and the freezer stocked, the rest should be easy. Another day of calorie reduction later on in the week holds no fears for us, but I can hear all those tubular aggregates crying out in terror in their high piping voices. Serves them damn well right.

[georger]

Hey Craig,
Can you delete the above from bigsun123? It's just an advert from someone with no interest in TAM. There are a few other single posts that are really irrelevant adverts.

[Craig Lane]

Done. Messaged them too.

[georger]

Thanks, very cheeky of them.
Well, 4 weeks into the 5:2 diet and it's part of the routine; it's not difficult. Nothing dramatic except I'm a tad less porky about the middle. Maybe I shouldn't have thrown out those trousers!

[Craig Lane]

Is it four weeks already? I have nothing dramatic either but don't want crash weight loss. just a little off the middle and a trim around the sides the backside as well. I think the lack of busy-ness and extra gifts of Jaffa cakes from my beloved slow the calorie burning process. 5:2 can trim a little here and there I'll be happy and the lack of extra bulk will make it easier for me to drag my sorry butt around.
I never had enough clothes to need to throw anything, just shove the 'snug' ones to the bottom of the pile. Spent so much of my life in a couple of pairs of jeans and three or four t shirts (not all at the same time) I rarely stir the pile. I have one shelf of clobber and Sian has five and half the floor. Plus the bottom of the wardrobe in the spare room houses part of her shoe collection. Will seem strange rummaging for a smaller waistband though.

[Craig Lane]

Been a while now Pete are you still on track with this. I seem to have levelled out floating between 12.5 and 13 stone. Feel fitter but have learned not to take to much advantage of that. Maybe I need to swap and do 5 day diet and 2 days normal.

[georger]

Yes, I'm surprised that it's been 18 months. I lost a bit too much weight and therefore have increased the calories slightly on the 2 days. Still, weight loss is only part of the claimed benefits. Haven't noticed any effect on TAM. Worsening of TAM has been slow until some recent unwise excessive walking. So it goes. Glad to hear you that you have stickability; wonder why nobody else is interested? They must all be as slim and fit as greyhounds.