Diet: Have you heard of the 5:2 Dieting Strategy?

If no then let me explain you that 5:2 Diet is a diet plan where you feast that is eat anything for 5 days and fast for 2 days. I understand there are already hundreds of diet plans present in the market today so why this 5:2 Diet? Well i thought there was no harm in finding out.

When i first read this article “The 5:2 Diet part two: Turbo boost your weight loss on the feast and fast plan” on www.mirror.co.uk by Steve Myall, i was stimulated to research more on it. It was then when i came accross this British author Kate Harrison’s book “The 5:2 Diet Book: Feast for 5 Days a Week and Fast for 2 to Lose Weight, Boost Your Brain and Transform Your Health“. In this book Kate narrates how she had failed numerous diet attempts in the past and then how she got inspired by this diet through a TV program. When she couldn’t find any guidance to start, she derived ways to first implement on herself. When she lost 16 pounds in less then 4 mounths, she thought that was it and decided to write the book.

 

I fetched further and found these interesting details on Wikipedia. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5:2_diet) “Dr. Michael J. Mosley, largely responsible for popularizing the diet after he featured in a BBC2 Horizon documentary Eat, Fast & Live Longer in August 2012, went on the diet for at least 6 weeks. He tested himself on the first Friday and discovered that he had lost 2 lb of body fat, his blood glucose levels had fallen dramatically, and his IGF-1 levels had halved. He lost 14 lbs and 25% of his body fat in 6 weeks on the diet, with improved cholesterol and blood sugar.^[2] A 61 year-old retired physician (not Mosley), very sceptical of extreme dieting, said of the diet, “I’ve been trying it for five weeks now and I’ve lost about a pound a week. It’s a weird diet because it’s both really easy and really hard. On my fast days, I eat two very small meals, and I find it very hard sometimes not to give up and snack. But then, the rest of the week I can eat what I like – so I don’t feel guilty if I treat myself to a cake or have a biscuit. I think I’ll probably do this for the rest of my life”

Now let me list down 5 key features of this Feast and Fast (5:2) dieting strategy.

1) According to 5:2 Diet you can eat anything five days of the week and for 2 days restrict your calorie intake. For example monday and wednesday fasting and rest of the days feasting.

2) This diet promises a certain benefit if you restrict to 500 (for women) and 600 (for men) calories on fasting days and 2000 (for women) and 2500 (for men) calories on the feasting days.

3) This diet helps in improving the blood pressure, cholestrol, reduces risk of breast cancer, diebetes, heart disease and Alzheimers.

4) According to some research when you restrict your calorie intake dramatically for short periods then it does have some positive impacts in your body like encouraging to heal itself, minimising the damage caused by our lifestyles and there is growth of brian cells too.

5) Expected weight loss is 4 to 5 lbs a week. 

Have these before starting your diet.

1) A Digital Weighing Scale

2) Calculated BMI:

BMI stands for Body Mass Index. This tells the amount of fat in your body. If your score is between 18.5 and 25 then you are normal, if your score is below 18.5 then you are under weight and if above 25 you over weight.

You can either calculate your BMI online from http://www.bmi-calculator.net/ or calculate manually from the given formula.

English BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches x Height in inches ) ) x 703
Metric BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Kilograms / ( Height in Meters x Height in Meters ) )

3) Calculated BMR:

BMR satands for Basal Metabolic Rate. Even if we are not doing anything there are some calories that our body will burn by default for its functioning. Like breathing, digesting, sensing, smelling, they all require energy which is acquired only after some calories are burn. Lets say my age is 31, my weight is 176 lbs and Height 5 feet and 8 inches. My calculated BMR or required calories for daily functioning would be 1594 calories. Now if i eat more then 1594 calories, means i will store all the extra calories taken and if i take less then 1594 calories then my body will burn some to maintain my daily body functions and if i keep on taking 1594 calories then i will neither lose weight nor put on weight.

Calculate your BMI online at http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ ,

or manually

English BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )
Metric BMR Formula
Women: BMR = 655 + ( 9.6 x weight in kilos ) + ( 1.8 x height in cm ) – ( 4.7 x age in years ) Men: BMR = 66 + ( 13.7 x weight in kilos ) + ( 5 x height in cm ) – ( 6.8 x age in years )

4) List of foods less then 50 calories.

You can make your own list by searching for 50 calories or less foods list on any search engine. 

Wow now that was quite some motivation and information for me to give 5:2 a try. So how about you?