Merged Intermittent Fasting -- Good Idea or Not?

... Not necessarily. One of the advantages of the 2:5 diet is that you are not fasting in the true sense. On fast days you merely restrict calories. Rule of thumb, 600 for men and 500 for women - 1/4 of the avg required.

To The Don. The idea is not to do back to back fast days, but to have at least 1 day in between.

The version of the 5:2 diet being promoted by Michael Mosley (apologies for my earlier misspelling) isn't prescriptive about whether the days should be consecutive or not. Michael Mosley tried both consecutive and non-consecutive fasting days and preferred the latter.

Do the fast days have to be non-consecutive?

The short answer is that it doesn’t matter. Some people prefer doing two days back to back, others prefer to split ie Mondays and Thursdays

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/michael-answers-frequently-asked-questions/
 
On the fasting days, you can eat your tea at 6pm, then fast until 6pm the next day. So even tho you fast for 24 hours, you still get to eat every day. Not that hard to do.

As promoted by Michael Mosley, the fast is 36 hours not 24 hours :

Is a “fast day” 24 or 36 hours?

In reality a fast day is 36 hours. If you finish your last full evening meal at 7.30pm on Sunday, then Monday is your fast day, you are not going to be eating normally till Tuesday morning 7.30am. That is 36 hours. If you decide instead to fast from 2pm on Monday until 2pm on Tuesday, then that will only be 24 hours. Wait till 7pm and that is 29 hours. To do 36 hours you would have to hold off till 2am on Wednesday, which would be a little inconvenient

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/michael-answers-frequently-asked-questions/
 
As promoted by Michael Mosley, the fast is 36 hours not 24 hours :

No im talking about the book Eat.Stop.Eat by Brad Pilon. Which recommends 2 24 hour fasting periods throughout the week. Please stop telling me im wrong when you don't know what im talking about.
 
The version of the 5:2 diet being promoted by Michael Mosley (apologies for my earlier misspelling) isn't prescriptive about whether the days should be consecutive or not. Michael Mosley tried both consecutive and non-consecutive fasting days and preferred the latter.

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/michael-answers-frequently-asked-questions/
Ah - must be an addendum to the book.

Frankly, once I got into the rhythm of this, I threw out the "rule book" and stick to a routine of Mondays and Thursdays. Now that the weather is warming up it is eaven easier, as my normal meals are lighter anyway.
 
No im talking about the book Eat.Stop.Eat by Brad Pilon. Which recommends 2 24 hour fasting periods throughout the week. Please stop telling me im wrong when you don't know what im talking about.

I wasn't saying that you were wrong, merely pointing out that there are other fasting diets which promote a 36 hour fast.
 
No im talking about the book Eat.Stop.Eat by Brad Pilon. Which recommends 2 24 hour fasting periods throughout the week. Please stop telling me im wrong when you don't know what im talking about.

Oh never mind....
 
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.......Please stop telling me im wrong when you don't know what im talking about.

Really? In a thread about diet? Couldn't you save that attitude for religion or politics sub-fora?

Might it possibly be that if we don't know what you are talking about, it is that you haven't explained yourself properly? Could it also be that you are the only person in the entire thread who is talking about your particular version of the I.F. regime?

And could it also be that no-one has actually told you that you were wrong? Simply posting an alternative, as The Don did, is not telling you that you are wrong. Maybe your diet has made your skin particularly thin.
 
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Or maybe, someone didn't notice that two threads on intermittent fasting were merged into a single thread -> the orginal thread that started out discussing the 5:2 diet.
 
The 5:2 is so easy, particularly if you don't eat breakfast. My fasting plan goes like this:

1. Pre-fast day - Eat dinner as usual at 6pm
2. Fast day - Skip b'fast (as usual)
3. Fast day - Skip lunch (you can have up to 700 calories here if you prefer)
4. Fast day - Eat dinner at 6pm (as usual)

24 hour fast done and dusted.

So all I need to do on a fast day is skip lunch (or have a 700 calorie lunch). I do this on a Monday and a Wednesday, allowing me to eat freely at weekends. It's such a small change that I haven't even noticed any difference in my lifestyle.

How easy is that? :)
 
So, months after we had this nice discussion, we have finally started a 5:2 fasting diet of the calendar day variety. I'm on my second fasting day and so far it is really easy.

The big deal for me is to avoid eating lunch out on a fasting day. I often eat lunch with clients and I have to actively avoid that.

My meals for these days have been sparse, but simple. Unflavored oatmeal is 100Cal per packet, so I have three of those throughout the work day: breakfast, late morning, mid afternoon. Then we will have some soup at dinner time. I found several that are around 100-150Cal per cup that the family seem to like. Throw in some carrots and pickles and all is well so far. The key was letting each person in the family pick out their own calories for the day. Some are having yogurt, others protein bars, one crackers and peanut butter. Just have to tally it up at the end of the day.

Obviously, no results yet, but I was really surprised at how I didn't really feel as hungry as I thought I would. Also, I had no real urge to binge eat on the between days. I expected to have to watch myself, but it just didn't happen. I wasn't extra hungry.

On exercise, I jogged a bit on the first day, but had a scheduling conflict today. I think I will try to focus on jogging on fasting days, for now.

I'll try to report back after I've put in a few weeks.
 
If the aim is health, any food taken into the body should not contain harmful ingredients. It is not just a matter of calories.
 
If the aim is health, any food taken into the body should not contain harmful ingredients. It is not just a matter of calories.

The aim is not health, the aim is enlightenment and power. Mainly power and riches with enlightenment as a side benefit of being so powerful and rich. But not just enlightenment in the sense of understanding but also in the sense of allowing others to understand. Because when they understand how much I understand and how powerful and rich I am they will cower at my brilliance. So there will have to something in there to enhance the shininess of my coat, brilliance is nothing without good hair.

So the food will be mostly ego, but with a dollop of alpo. Mostly harmless.
 
The aim is not health, the aim is enlightenment and power. Mainly power and riches with enlightenment as a side benefit of being so powerful and rich. But not just enlightenment in the sense of understanding but also in the sense of allowing others to understand. Because when they understand how much I understand and how powerful and rich I am they will cower at my brilliance. So there will have to something in there to enhance the shininess of my coat, brilliance is nothing without good hair.

So the food will be mostly ego, but with a dollop of alpo. Mostly harmless.
Power and riches does not necessarily bring enlightenment nor health to the human body.
 
Power and riches does not necessarily bring enlightenment nor health to the human body.

Not necessarily, but there is a high correlation and I'm willing to take that gamble. Besides, even if I'm wrong I will have a shiny coat . . . so I got that going for me.
 
Is anyone suggesting otherwise?


I'm sure she considers my daily cup of Israeli coffee with cardamom to be toxic. She is Mormon after all.

I wonder if she considers it inappropriate race mixing for a white guy of largely German extraction to eat middle eastern food...
 

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