The 5:2 Diet is a popular intermittent fasting diet trending across the internet. Find out everything you need to know about the 5:2 Diet and its rules today in our guide.
What is the 5:2 Diet?
The 5:2 Diet is a trendy diet created by Dr. Michael Mosley. The diet has been particularly popular in the UK for the past few years, but has recently become known around the world. Beyoncé is rumored to be a fan, and actor Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly lost weight on the diet.
The original diet required you to restrict your caloric intake to 500 calories per day during the two fast days (600 calories per day for men). However, Dr. Mosley recently decided to relax the rules to an 800 calorie daily limit because it’s “almost as effective and for some people much more doable”, reports Mail on Sunday.
How Does the 5:2 Diet Work?
The 5:2 Diet is straightforward: 5 days of your week are normal eating days, while the other two days require you to “fast” by restricting your caloric intake.
The diet isn’t as strict as other diets. There are no requirements about which foods you need to eat. However, the diet is strict about when you eat your foods.
You don’t fast two days in a row. You choose two days of the week – any two days – for your fast. As long as there’s at least one non-fasting day between your two fasting days, you’re good to go.
Typically, dieters fast on Mondays and Thursdays. During a fast day, you usually eat 2 or 3 small meals (now that the calorie restrictions have been raised to 800 calories per day, the 3 meal option is becoming more popular).
Obviously, your non-fasting days should not be treated like “cheat” days. You should still try to eat healthy. Just don’t worry as much about counting your calories.
Does It Work?
Intermittent fasting has shown a growing amount of evidence as a popular dieting program. Many people enjoy intermittent fasting because they find it easier to follow than a traditional diet: instead of dieting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can just focus on eating really small meals for 2 days a week. That’s do-able for many people.
The 5:2 Diet makes many of the same claims as other intermittent fasting diets. Typically, intermittent fasting involves totally fasting on your fast days (you don’t eat 800 calories).
Studies have shown that intermittent fasting diets like the 5:2 Diet can lead to benefits like reduced insulin resistance, reduced asthma, better heart health, and reduced menopausal hot flashes.
More importantly, studies have also shown that it can lead to powerful weight loss results over a 12 week period. Compared to a control group that ate normally in this study, for example, intermittent fasters were able to reduce body weight by more than 5kg, reduce fat mass by 3.5kg, and reduce blood triglyceride levels, decrease leptin levels, and improve overall cholesterol measurements.
Ultimately, the 5:2 Diet is expected to lead to similar benefits to intermittent fasting diets. It’s an effective weight loss protocol that has proven to lead to other health benefits. By allowing you to consume 800 calories per day on your fast days, the 5:2 Diet makes it easy to stick with the plan.
However, the 5:2 Diet is only as effective as you make it: the healthier you eat on your non-fasting days, the more effective your diet will be.
What to Eat on the 5:2 Diet
The 5:2 Diet doesn’t have strict requirements about what you need to eat, or when you need to eat it. In general, you should either eat:
- Three Small Meals: A small breakfast, lunch, and dinner with each about 250 to 300 calories.
- Two Slightly Larger Meals: Only lunch and dinner, with each about 400 calories.
Some people follow the “original” 5:2 Diet rules, where they restrict their daily calories to 500 calories (for women) or 600 calories (for men). Others are using the “new” 5:2 Diet rules, which allots 800 calories per day.
5:2 Diet Tips and Rules
Some of the tips and rules for the 5:2 Diet include:
- The main rule is that you need to pick two days a week where you restrict your caloric intake to 800 calories or fewer; alternatively, you can follow the original 5:2 diet rules that restrict you to 500 or 600 calories per day, twice a week
- Focus on nutritious, high-fiber, high-protein meals that will maximize your feeling of fullness without requiring you to consume too many calories
- Many people eat soups on fast days because they make you feel more full than the ingredients would normally make you feel in their original form
Popular Foods on the 5:2 Diet
5:2 Dieters particularly seem to enjoy the following foods for fast days:
- Lots of vegetables
- Natural yogurt with berries
- Boiled or baked eggs
- Grilled fish or lean meat
- Cauliflower rice
- Soups (like miso, tomato, cauliflower, or vegetable soup)
- Low calorie cup soups
- Black coffee
- Tea
- Still or sparkling water
There’s no strict list of foods that you need to eat on dieting days. You need to experiment and find out what foods work best for you. The foods listed above are popular because they’re low in calories, high in protein, high in fiber, and relatively large: so you feel like you’re eating a big meal, even if it’s not very calorie-dense.
What is the 5:2 Diet Book?
If you want to learn everything you need to know about the 5:2 Diet, then there are several 5:2 Diet Books you can buy, including recipe books. Many of the diet books are written by Kate Harrison. Others are written by Gina Crawford. The books were released between 2013 and 2015, when the 5:2 Diet was first becoming popular.
However, many of these books are just authors trying to capitalize on the hype of the 5:2 Diet. There’s no specific book you can read that’s the “definitive” guide to the 5:2 Diet.
Ultimately, a lot of information about the 5:2 Diet is available for free online. If you want a convenient way to follow the diet and learn more about the nutritional strategies, then there are a number of books you can buy – particularly Kindle books.
However, Dr. Michael Mosley has published a number of diet books, including the FastLife, which discusses the strategies of the 5:2 Diet and intermittent fasting. If you want authorized 5:2 Diet information from the guy who invented it, then look for Dr. Mosley’s books on Amazon.
Should You Start the 5:2 Diet?
The 5:2 Diet is a diet created by Dr. Michael Mosley. The diet involves eating between 500 and 800 calories per day twice a week, and then eating a normal, healthy diet on other days. The diet isn’t strict, and it’s designed as a DIY diet. The healthier you eat, and the better you stick to your fast days, the more weight you’ll lose.
People around the world have used the 5:2 Diet to lose weight. Beyoncé and Benedict Cumberbatch are allegedly fans of the diet, for example, and the diet has been popular throughout the UK since 2013.
Today, you can find a number of 5:2 Diet books available online – including guides and recipe books. However, most of these are just individual authors trying to capitalize on the 5:2 Diet. There’s no definitive 5:2 Diet book available.
The best way to start the 5:2 Diet is to plan out meals yourself: pick foods you enjoy and plan out three balanced meals using those foods. Those meals need to add up to around 800 calories. Take those meals on fasting days, eat normal food the rest of the week, and enjoy powerful weight loss results. That’s how the 5:2 Diet works.
