Some people choose to skip a meal on their fasting days in order to keep their calorie counts low. Others eat smaller portions more often, which is also an effective way of dealing with cravings. In the end, you will have to figure out what 5.2 fasting diet recipes and meal plans work best for your lifestyle.
The great thing about the 5:2 fasting diet is that you can adapt it to suit you, as long as you stick to the basic principles.
If you find this too vague and need some more guidance on what you can eat on your fasting days, we have a variety of interesting 5.2 fasting diet recipes and meal ideas with the calorie count already calculated. If you keep the calories in your main meals low, you can even have snacks between meals.
5:2 Meal Ideas and Inspiration
Check out our tasty and low-calorie recipes below for some ideas and inspiration…
My 1st day of fasting went good. i was able to handle it except I got SOOO hungry in the evening. will cont to hang in there. thanks sarah
Hi Bec
Well done.
You may have to make a few adjustments to your meal sizes & times, and also look at having some snacks to get you through the afternoon until dinner.
Just play around with it a bit until you find something that works. Everyone is different.
Keep at it.
Sarah
Sara, Going well on our 4th week! I find we do well on fasting days. Watching and counting calories on non-fast days. So far, my husband has lost 10 lbs and I have lost 5 ( he always loses faster than me!) Thanks for all your help. Bobbie
Hi Bobbie
Thanks for sharing with us the great success you have had with the fasting diet plan. Men always lose more weight and often faster than women so this is rather normal, especially if he had more to lose than you to start with.
Keep up the great work, start to integrate it into your life now, don’t give up! Once you achieve your desired results you may want to revert to 1 day per week just for maintaince and keeping yourself in health, your mind clear and to enjoy the other benefits of sound sleep and greater clarity.
Be sure to let us know your final results once you have ended the 4 week challenge.
To your health
Sarah
Hi Sara, 4 weeks in and I’ve lost 3.1 kilo’s, Not too hard at the moment. Just wish I’d followed 5.2 years before. Still better late than never. 🙂
Hi Leanne. Glad you are seeing great results from your 5:2 fasting diet challenge. Stick at it and keep up the focus and commitment. Don’t look back just look forwards. If things get a little tougher or you start to plateau that is not a sign to give up but rather to keep going, it is normal for the body to plateau at times. To your health Sarah
I don’t lose weight fast. I can cope with the fasting days, but just how much should I eat on the “5” days? I could eat masses……. And I don’t then lose weight
Hi Lesley as per my response on another post – You need to consider are you fasting correctly – 2 days each week for 36hrs, sticking to 500 calories and then eating a relatively normal diet the other 500 days – relatively normal for most women is about 1800 – 2000 calories.
Now you say that you are eating alot – if you are over eating, bingeing on your ‘normal days or 5 days of the week – this is never going to help. Just because you fast you still need to eat sensibly – it does not mean that you eat double quantities or go raid the pantry and eat chips, chocolate, icecream, fries, and pizza! Rather you go back to eat normal quantities of food eating normal wholesome meals, wanting your portion sizes and limiting treats to occasional.
Go back and check this is what you are doing – because if you are not then fasting will not work and it will be difficult for you to see results.
Also look at your thoughts and mindset – what is going on; why are you over eating on your normal days?? – Examine this, become aware and look to make changes
To your health
Sarah
thanks for this article. it really helps out my mom. thankyou so much