Now 5:2 dieters can eat three meals on fast days – inventor
IT’S one of the most successful and widely used diets of recent years, but there has always been one big catch with the socalled 5:2 regime.
For two “fasting” days every week, dieters must limit themselves to just 600 calories, a demand that even the most ardent can find challenging.
But now the diet’s creator, Dr Michael Mosley, is about to make things significantly easier by unveiling a new version of his “Fast Diet” that allows followers to eat 800 calories on their fasting days, spread over three meals.
And, crucially, Mosley promises that with the new diet, you’ll shift the kilos at almost the same rate.
“You don’t need to stick to 600 calories. Cutting down to 800 calories a day seems to be almost as effective and for some people much more doable. It’s low-calorie without being super-low calorie. And if you want to have lunch, you can slip those extra 200 calories in there.”
But those imagining tucking into a sticky bun or chocolate in the new version, think again. Mosley said “empty calories” should remain strictly off-limits on fasting days. “If you are going to have lunch, have something like a nice bowl of hearty soup, or grilled fish and a decent pile of vegetables or salad.” His original version of the 5:2 advocated fasting for about 12 hours from breakfast to dinner. But he admitted some people ended up getting “a bit irritable” going without food for so long. Consequently, in his alternative version, people can switch so they have their long fast overnight “so they sleep during half of it” beginning their low-calorie day the night before.
“I’d recommend having a slightly earlier supper on the evening before, and a slighter later breakfast on fasting day. That way, you’ll be fasting for 13 hours or more overnight.”
A growing number of studies suggest that periodically going without food for 12 hours or more can help control blood sugar levels – so defending the body against the threat of type 2 diabetes.
Mosley stumbled across what has been termed “intermittent fasting” while researching the subject for a documentary on the BBC’s Horizon series in 2012.
When he tried it, adapting it into the 5:2 diet, he managed to lose 9kg and reverse his newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes.
Adherents of the 5:2 include singer Beyoncé and Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch, while the book The Fast Diet, which Dr Mosley penned with journalist Mimi Spencer, is an international best-seller. – The Mail on Sunday