The 5:2 Fast Diet works by restricting your
calorie intake significantly for two days out of seven. When people cut down on
calories for all seven days of the week, they more often than not struggle with
this standard approach, as they find themselves constantly having to think
about their diet and what they are eating. We have found that with the 5:2
intermittent diet, where calories are restricted for only two days of the week,
people find it far more achievable to lose weight.
We all carry a hormone called IGF-1 which
is an insulin-like growth factor. This is important for growth when we are
young, however not essentially required so much during adulthood where lower
IGF-1 levels are healthier. There is now evidence that when the IGF-1 hormone
is high in adults, particularly females over the age of forty. They can potentially
have a decreased cancer risk as when the levels of IGF-1 are lower there is a
less rapid turnover of cells. Fasting has now been proven to lower levels of
IGF-1 as the levels do not stay depressed for long once you return to normal
eating. The repeated on/off pattern of intermittent fasting could help to keep
levels persistently lower and healthier.
Despite being bombarded with never-ending
eating opportunities, our bodies are still designed with a biology and hormones
that expect food to be scarce at some times and more plentiful at others. This
is why many scientists believe intermittent fasting could be a particularly
healthy and physiologically appropriate way to keep trim and fight ageing.
Restricting yourself for only two days when you are able to eat as normal for
the other five makes this an extremely appealing formula for weight loss and as
well as delivering healthier, sustainable weight loss. The 2-day diet is
nutritionally balanced to meet all your body’s needs.
This diet will work at making you feel less
sluggish, bloated and more alert. On restricted diet days, you eat foods that
are high in protein, healthy monounsaturated fats (such as nuts) and fruit and
vegetables. These types of foods are satisfying and reduce the feelings of
hunger. Feeling fuller makes you less likely to over-eat. The 2-day diet is
deliberately low in carbohydrates which appear to make people feel hungrier. On
the other five unrestricted days you continue eat a normal and healthy style
diet.
The 2 day diet is designed to lower
calories enough to enable you to lose weight, but without leaving you feeling
hungry. It is nutritionally balanced so that all your vitamin, mineral and protein
requirements are met and allows eating to fit into a normal busy lifestyle. Cutting
down for just two days is easier than cutting down every day. Overall, people find
it easier to maintain two strict days of significantly restricted calories than
restricting calories by a much smaller amount every day.
A stricter regime is easier to follow than
a less restricted diet simply because it is so strict and has clear rules.
2-day dieters will know that as long as the diet is achievable, diets with
restricted rules and limited choice can be easier to stick to than
healthy-eating and low-calorie diets that have very flexible rules. In fact our
bodies may even be biologically programmed for this intermittent pattern of
eating. The idea of having spells of normal intake and spells of restriction
isn’t new and some argue that it mimics the periods of food abundance from many
years ago.
The 2-Day Diet retrains your eating habits
by altering your habit of regularly consuming more food than we need. We are
prone to eating overly large servings and having too many fatty or sugary foods
or habitual snacking. The 2-day diet helps you to change the way you eat.
Losing weight is really very simple. It means cutting your overall calories by
at least one-quarter and reducing your intake of high-sugar foods and saturated
fat. For many people this is easier said than done. The 2-day diet gives you a
much needed break from your normal eating habits each week and helps you to
develop vigilance and awareness of what you eat. These are vital skills which
put you on the road to being in control of what you eat and therefore your
weight.
Dramatically cutting calories for two days
a week helps you to relearn how hunger feels and what a normal serving looks
like. You will learn to eat more slowly, appreciate smaller amounts and really
enjoy your food on both your two restricted days and on the five unrestricted
days. This will help you to rediscover how much food you really need, rather
than the amount you have become used to eating.
Dieters found that contrasting the two
restricted days to their normal intake helped them identify what triggered them
to eat and to overeat. If you’re a serial dieter you may have become stuck in
the low-fat , low-protein and high-carbohydrate pattern of eating. A
combination promoted by many mainstream diets. While this approach may work for
some, others find it difficult to maintain a daily low-calorie intake with
these regimes. They often find themselves overeating. The 2-day diet will help
wane you away from these unhelpful patterns of eating.
For
two days every week you have the opportunity to learn to resist temptation.
This is a key dieting skill that you will need to practise until it becomes a
habit. Being restrained on your diet and food cravings will reinforce your
desire to be in control of your diet on the other days of the week.
