The FastDiet - Revised & Updated: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting

There are many ways to lose weight from counting point to micro-managing carbs. But almost all of them involve eating less calories on a daily basis. The result - you lose weight but let's face it the prospect of eating less every day gets old. And in many cases weight that is shed is quickly put back on. Enter Dr. Michael Mosley with "The Fast Diet". Dr. Mosley a science researcher, investigated how fasting can result in enormous benefits such as increased longevity, lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol and much more. He presented his findings in the British television BBC special documentary "Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer". Instead of a pure fast Dr. Mosley found that you could enjoy many benefits from eating a reduced calorie diet just 2 days a week and eating normally the other 5. For women about 500 calories and for men about 600 on the 2 lower calorie days. Based on the documentary thousands of British people tried eating this way and found it to be fast, effective and much easier than a traditional diet. In the book, "The Fast Diet", Dr. Mosley presents the science behind how and why the diet works. His co-author Mini Spencer shares menu plans and tips to make the plan user friendly. The book also includes color photographs so you get a feel for what a low calorie day looks like. And there are inspirational accounts from people who are using the diet, losing weight and enjoying greater health and renewed vitality. A typical 500 calorie day on the plan might include a small apple, small mango and small boiled egg (223 calories) for breakfast and a tuna, bean and garlic salad for dinner (267 calories). Or you could spread your calories between lunch and dinner or eat them at one main meal. The plan is very flexible. The days you are not on the plan you eat normally, including high fat foods, without counting calories. You might think that on the feed days people would go crazy but research has shown that people eat only a little more than what they would normally eat. Knowing that you can have pretty much what you like most days of the week makes sticking to the plan so much easier than traditional diets. Based on the documentary (before the book was released in the U.S.) I decided to try the plan making up simple 500 calorie meals and I was amazed at how much easier it is than traditional dieting. Variations of the plan are easy to do also such as every other day, 4:3 etc. And if you miss a day you simply get back on track the next. On fast days, I like to go as far into the day as possible without eating so I have a cup of espresso in the morning, an egg on sandwich thin with berries around noon, small snack mid-afternoon and a protein with veggies for dinner. It has been surprisingly easy to do. I dropped 5 pounds fast! The benefits of following 5:2 are huge from what we can see visually i.e. weight loss to what we can't i.e. our bodies inner workings. And best of all many find that it is so much easier to diet just a couple days a week than every day. You really do get used to it. Once you have achieved your desired body weight you can adjust the plan to one day a week if desired or eat a few more calories on the diet days. Side note - I purchased the Kindle version of the book and the formatting is excellent. The menu plan is hyper-linked to the recipes and the color photos are clear. Overall if you are struggling with traditional diets and want to improve your health, this book, "The Fast Diet" gets my highest recommendation!

I have been on this diet since August 2012 and lost over 35 lbs while still enjoying reasonable portions of foods such as pizzas, burritos, or ramen. I was skeptical when I first read about this diet after stumbling across it on the BBC website. Eat only 600 calories a day for two days out of the week? Still, it was time for a change. Despite attempting to eat right every day, continuous grazing on food to supposedly boost my metabolism, and regular gym workouts, I had gained fat until I was at 214 lbs (and I'm 5'8). Plus, a doctor's visit showed me I was suffering from high cholesterol and high blood pressure. So I decided to give this diet a try for at least a week. Breakfast was scrambled eggs with slices of chicken breast, and then I anxiously waited for dinner. My stomach began rumbling by 12:00 pm, but the hunger subsided after I downed a cup of black coffee. I did feel a bit weak, but keeping busy and more coffee helped me make it to a dinner. This was a revelation - I would not die from a day without food! Interestingly, the next day I did not feel as hungry as I thought I would be. I then realized this was a plan I could do for the long-term. I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app to keep track of calories, and still ate what I wanted on non-fast days, but in reasonable portions. Dr. Michael Mosley advises high protein, low glycemic index foods on fast days, but I took it further and reduced sugars and starches, and boosted my intake of green vegetables even on most non-fasting days. I continued working out when fasting, and noticed that my running stamina improved markedly. Much of what Dr. Mosley writes in The Fast Diet mirrored my personal experience. For example, hunger does diminish after a few weeks of intermittent fasting. As this book notes, this diet will lead to long-term changes toward food. Well, I looked forward to eating green veggies and avoiding decadent foods on days I could eat normally. I still eat junk food, but only when I am hungry, not bored. Although the Fast Diet focuses on two meals each fasting day, I would eat one large dinner because a single meal was more satisfying than several small ones. This book also suggests getting support from family and friends. Unfortunately, I did not tell others about my diet because it had not made its way to the U.S. When I first did reveal my fasting, I was bombarded with well-meaning advice on how it was a dangerous fad diet. So instead, I joined a Facebook group of Alternate Day Fasters who were mostly from the UK. This group was so helpful for advice and support. Soon, my pants began sagging off my waist and others were asking me if I was losing weight. I went to the doctor in early December and weighed in at 184 lbs, about a 30 lb loss in just four months! And my cholesterol and blood pressure had reduced to reasonable levels. The doctor told me to stop losing weight, since I had more muscle than average, so I could disregard the BMI or height-weight charts. Also my body fat % went down from 25% to 20% so I had lost mostly fat. Since then, I have maintained my weight doing two moderate fasts of 1,200 calories each week. In the end, how do I evaluate this book? First of all, this diet works! It is easy to stick to long term for all-or-nothing types like me. Instead of reducing calories a little every day, I greatly reduce calories for two days a week, and eat normally on the others. And I love this diet's flexibility - no more going to parties and having to decline food. As for the cons, similar information and other 5:2 recipes are available online so one does not necessarily have to buy this book. Still The Fast Diet is recommended for those who lack the time to find the information online. Also, one must also avoid the trap of overeating on non-fasting days. While I did have days of indulgence, most of my normal eating days were just that - normal. Please do not take this diet as a license to overeat unhealthily every non-fasting day. Also, Dr. Mosley's 5:2 has not been the subject of as much research as has been done for Alternate daily fasting, where one fasts every other day. Most research on fasting's benefits was done on mice, not humans. Still, we are rapidly learning more about fasting and several studies have already come out since Mosley's Horizon Documentary, making the information in this book already slightly outdated, (Google Dr. Krista Varady for more details). In the end, please get your doctor's approval if you decide to try the The Fast Diet. I wish you the best of luck and hope your experience will be as fruitful as mine. Update (June 17, 2013): One of the mass media criticisms of the Fast Diet is that long-term weight maintenance would be difficult through fasting. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am at my desired weight and find maintaining my weight so easy! It has now been 10 months since starting this eating plan and I have lost another 10 lbs since I wrote this review (for a total weight loss of around 45 lbs). Occasional fasts have become part of my lifestyle and it is so easy to do one or two fast days a week. And yes, I am still eating the forbidden foods, so I am amazed at how easy it is to maintain this weight! Update (Jan 10, 2025) By 2019 I had regained all of my weight. I was constantly hungry between meals and unable to maintain my fasts. Read my review of Jason Fung’s book _The Obesity Code_ to see how I also changed WHAT I ate (no sugar, no starches) to go along with my fasting. I lost the weight in six months and fasting worked again. I am back to a fit 185 lbs.

I read this book very carefully, since I was VERY skeptical. I had been adhering to the "Eat 5 or 6 small meals" hype so that I could keep my metabolism in fat burning mode. I see now that that's as big a crock as the whole low fat diet scam of the 90s where I ate disgusting Snackwells cookies and other low fat/high sugar processed junk thinking I was doing myself a favor. But this book completely convinced me that your body doesn't go into the dreaded starvation mode until you have fasted for days or maybe even weeks. Certainly not after one day of low calorie eating. It's just the opposite. A little hunger puts you into fat-burning mode. And I can tell it's working. I've lost 7 of my EXTREMELY stubborn 15 pounds that I've been trying to lose, in just 3 weeks, and it's not just water weight. My measurements are smaller and people are asking me what my secret is! I have more energy on both fast and feast days, and my stamina us up. My exercise instructor said she was amazed at how much stronger I seem lately. Because of my new understanding of how hunger affects the body, on my feast days I don't feel like I have to rush to eat right when I'm hungry. I actually like to wait until I have a nice big appetite. The food tastes better, and since I'm only eating 3 times a day I can really enjoy that bigger meal. It fulfills me much more than those diet-y little meals I was eating before. I think that's why I always used to fall off the healthy wagon. I was never really satisfied. Also, I don't stuff my face the way I would before if I got too hungry. Before if I happened to get really hungry, I'd pig out, thinking that I deserved to really go crazy since I hadn't eaten all day. Now I just see getting good and hungry as natural, and then I eat a reasonable amount. And all the little tips in the book really helped me figure out how to make the fasting days fly by. The way I do it is that I drink coffee (with a little unsweetened almond milk and Splenda), Good Earth Tea (iced), lemon water, fizzy water and maybe chicken broth through out my busiest mornings. Then I have scrambled eggs with cheese at 1:00. A sweet potato with Greek yogurt and salsa at 4. Then I go to bed early. The tip I like best is just reminding myself I can have whatever I want tomorrow. Sounds trite, but it works like a charm. I always think I'm going to have a burrito or a huge take-out spaghetti and meatballs, but when the next day comes, my appetite is so small I don't feel like eating it. I also feel so light and healthy that it doesn't even sound appealing. Last week I did have a big old Panda Express lunch and this week I had the spaghetti, but when I stepped on the scale the next morning I was lighter than ever! But for me, the best part is that I'm not on this awful diet roller-coaster. I used to be "good" for about 2 or 3 days and then I'd be "bad" and ruin it. Then I'd feel guilty so I'd eat more to make myself feel better, then I'd be good again, only to ruin it... This is no way to live! My feelings of self-worth should not be dependent upon what I eat! This new approach isn't about being good or bad. It's just eating or not eating. It's easy for me to not eat when I only have to do it for one day. I don't feel like I'm being "good." I just feel like I'm doing something good for my body. And the next day when I indulge- if I even do, I feel like it's all part of my healthy plan. I just know that this is something I can do forever. I actually look forward to the fasting days as a chance to re-boot. I also like to use the hunger pains to remind me to be live a life of compassion for myself and for others. But that's another story...

As stated in the title of my review, I was skeptical that this diet really worked, but I am very happy to say that it does. I have been fasting 2 days a week for 3 weeks now, and I have lost 7 pounds. 3 weeks ago, I sat down at my computer and googled "New diet plans 2014" to see if there was anything new out there that could help me lose weight. I found this diet as one of the most popular mainly in the UK, but making its way to the States in the last year or so. I've been on every diet imaginable, but always found them too hard to stick to. I would do great for 4 or 5 days then eat something bad, feel like a failure, and blow the whole thing for the rest of the weekend, vowing to start anew Monday. This was my cycle. Now, all of that has changed. I fast on Mondays and Thursdays and the rest of my days I do not count any calories. The trick is not to binge. Have the food you like, but eat it in moderation. For me, it is a head game. If I know I can't have potato chips for the next 6 months because I'm on a diet, I want a whole bag in one sitting. Now that I know I can have a small portion of chips with my sandwich at lunch time tomorrow, that small portion is wonderfully satisfying. I make healthier choices most of the time, but on the occasion that I want something sweet, I know that I'm not "ruining my diet". The feeling of wanting to binge is completely eliminated following this diet. Have you ever dreaded the start of a diet on Monday and said to yourself, 'well I better eat one last delicious meal because after tomorrow I can't have anything like this for the next few months'? I have. And I will never say that again. This diet takes very little thought or preparation. It is so easy. It fits into your everyday life. The author of this book realizes that in a perfect world we would all live on fruits, vegetables, and lean meats every day of our lives and never eat another morsel outside of that. But that is simply not realistic. With the Fast Diet, you don't have to go off your diet just because you have a birthday party, a night out with friends, or a Holiday coming up. It works with your schedule. I know that I can do this for the rest of my life. I have read a lot of reviews that say you don't really have to read the book to follow this diet, and that is technically true, but there is some good scientific information in there, as well as some motivation and details that make you think. It's an easy, quick read so I highly recommend just doing it. I want to read it again just to go over the parts I loved about it. Now, let's get real. The first two weeks of fasting days were hard. I was hungry. Very hungry. I had a constant headache all 4 fasting days the first two weeks, and my 2nd fast day felt like it would never end. But I got through it, and you will too. A lot of reviewers have said it, and I will say it too: it does get easier. My third week of fasting went much better. The headaches were either short or didn't come at all. I am on my 4th week and my 7th fast day today and I am hungry, but it is bearable. Like the author says in the book many times, it is easy to withhold calories from yourself for one day, when you know that tomorrow you can have whatever you want. I really cannot believe it is working. I'm amazed. Remember that your scale with fluctuate. You will lose weight on the days you fast, then gain some back on your non fast days. That is normal. But you will lose it, just don't give up. When you're stomach is growling, your head is hurting, and you are irritable, think about what you will eat tomorrow. Whether you really end up eating that or not (most of the time you won't) it will help to visualize it. Buy the book, read it, watch the documentary, put the Fast Diet into practice, and you will see the scale go down, and it won't even feel like you're on a diet.

I watched the BBC show with Michael Mosly and decided to buy the book. However, my biggest fear was not so much being able to do the two FAST days ( 500 calories each day) but how I was to control my self on the other 5 days. Unfortunately, the book sorely lacked in information on the 5 normal days: ...with only ( max 2 pages) out of 188 pages designated to eating "normal" Really? I think that many people who will go on this plan and buy this book will be life long dieters who have no idea on how to "eat normally" To me, a little guidance would have helped... perhaps not from Michael Mosely....who only had a "pot" and was minimally overweigh to being with...but perhaps the co-author could have given some points as what to :try to do: calorie counting? or some other hints or ideas I got my info about the "5" days from reading the experiences of many of the people who wrote reviews and are on or have tried this diet. They actually were quite helpful The book itself is good....and I do like the idea of a semi fast on 2 of the days...and I do like the flexiblity of the fast...and also it fits so well into "real life" BUT for me... really, really watching what I eat on the other 5 are just as crucial to the "losing weight" aspect.....and yet the book almost ignores those days. BUT, as I said, in spite of the lack of info in the book I did manage to find the info that I wanted "outside " of the books pages

I bought THE FAST DIET: LOSE WEIGHT, STAY HEALTHY, AND LIVE LONGER..., by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer, for my Kindle after seeing a report about it on my local news channel (I haven't seen the documentary on this diet, also by the authors, but it's sounds interesting). That was about 9-weeks ago and so far I've lost 10-pounds. I'm not obese, just overweight and looking to lose about 20-pounds, and so that's why I wanted to try out this diet. I quit smoking about 5-6 years ago and gained about 30-pounds after that and it's been tough trying to lose that excess weight, even though I exercise, because I love to eat. Anyway, the book is well written, easy to read, and contains case studies and research into various diets that include some form of fasting. The authors experiment on themselves and come up with a plan that seems to work, actually be doable, and that's what they pass along to the reader. The book also has recipes and guidelines and what to expect when you begin. Really the plan is VERY SIMPLE: you simply fast on two non-consecutive days a week, not really fasting just eating 600 calories or less for men; 500 or less for women on those "fast" days, and eat whatever you like on the non-fast days. That's it. So technically you don't have to read this book to get started, and you can find recipes online for meals that are 500/600 calories, but by doing so you kind of cheat yourself out of the wealth of information that the authors supply in the book and why they arrive at 5:2 being the most successful plan of attack. What this really boils down to, and why it works, is simple math: by doing the 5:2 diet you're cutting out almost 4,000 calories a week for men (based upon Recommended Daily/dietary Allowance of 2,500 calories). You will lose weight by doing so. Another reason why it works it because you don't overeat on the normal eating days. I thought I was going to be ravenous the next day after a fast, but I wasn't. In fact, I just ate as I normally would. Another interesting phenomenon was that I thought I would be starving on those fast days but that wasn't the case at all, either. I just eat one-protein source (meat or fish) and lots of vegetables (broccoli or spinach or both) and maybe a salad. I might add in a protein shake if I'm still a little hungry, but that's it. Sometimes the protein shake would put me over the 600-calorie mark, but even still, I'm cutting out over 1,000 for that day, which is good. The 5:2 diet is totally customizable and you don't have to stick with it to the letter like other diet plans, which is why I believe is another reason it works. I've skipped several fast days because of plans that would make controlling calorie intake impossible and just continued on the following week, so it's not a big deal to miss a fast day when life happens to curtail it. I've seen newspaper reports that say how dangerous this diet is etc., and that people should stick with a normal diet blah-blah-blah, but if we could do that we wouldn't be overweight in the first place. However, this doesn't mean that you should throw out all commonsense when it comes to your dietary habits on normal days. You should still eat or strive to eat more vegetables and fruit on the days when you don't fast. This diet just makes it possible to cut calories without doing that every-single day, which can burn you out. And once you get down to your goal weight, you may cut back the fasting days to just once a week. Very do-able. I haven't tried any of the recipes that are in the book, for some reason I can't follow a recipe for one small meal because I feel like if I'm going to go through the trouble of preparing it that meal better last for more than just one sitting, but they look pretty tasty. Here's some tips that helped me get started: * Plan Meals In Advance (for your fasting days) * Believe me you don't want to be figuring out what to eat when you've gone from morning to night with just 90-calories in your stomach. And eating out, unless you know for a fact how many calories are in the meal, isn't a good idea since you can't control how many calories you're consuming. * Know Your Body * This was very important because I'm normally a very light breakfast eater, having no appetite the mornings, so I always eat just one Yoplait light (90-calories) for breakfast. When I started the 5:2 diet, I started getting or actually feeling light-headed before lunch, which is silly because I didn't do anything out of the ordinary on that day, so it was psychological. But you've got to know that before-hand otherwise you'd think it was really because of fasting. * Add An Egg To Your Meal * This tip was given to me by another reviewer who read the book before me (thanks, Lee) and eggs, either soft or hard boiled, really fill you up. * Get A Calorie App * I use both Calorie Counter (by Fat Secret) and My Fitness Pal, which are both available for free and work either for Android and iPhone OS (operating systems), and these apps help tremendously with keeping track of caloric intake. I think they work better than using a scale. * Green and/or Black Tea * Have these tea bags on hand because they're great to drink on fast days because the warmth is comforting and they fill you up. Also, don't worry about your body going into starvation mode and holding onto every little calorie you eat because you aren't fasting for prolonged periods of time. I also recommend choosing your fasting days on the days when you have very little physical activity, at least in the beginning, until you find out how your body reacts to the drop in calories. I don't exercise on those days, although I feel that I can now, but I don't want to over do it. You'll also notice that your weight will go down dramatically after the fasting days, but tends to normalize after a few days of regular eating, so if you're going to record your weight and keep score, go by the number you get after eating normally. You can weigh yourself after the second fast day, but just know that your weight will go back up during that same week, giving the illusion that you're actually gaining weight (because that initial number is inaccurate and some of it is water weight that is lost), so it can be disheartening to see the scale going back up. A better barometer is how your clothes are fitting, but if you go by the other number you'll see that you'll be losing a pound a week or so. IF you have a physically demanding job that requires a lot of physical exertion, but then you'd probably be in good physical shape already, I wouldn't advise doing the fast on those days. This diet is NOT recommended for diabetics or people with eating disorders or young adults under the age of 18.

Pretty good diet book for one reason: it provides evidence that there is no reason that we need to eat three meals every day to be healthy. For that reason alone, it deserves a look. If you want a better explanation of the carbohydrate-insulin-serotonin relationship, see the "Carbohydrate Addict's Diet" by Heller and Heller. That book was groundbreaking. The South Beach Diet by Agatston offers further refinement on the notion of glycemic index. By all means, if you struggle with your weight as I do, read all three of these books and use them to find a way of eating that you can live with. The weakness of the FastDiet book is the vague recommendations for how to eat on the days when you aren't fasting. You'll discover that you need to be prudent on your non-fast days... but you will also discover that if you exhibit some restraint then your cravings will be manageable. See Heller and Heller for the explanation. In summary: this book has added one very important benefit to my life... I no longer need to defend myself when my friends tell me that my eating habits are not healthy because I skip meals. Instead, I can quote benefits related to increased longevity, reduced chance of cancer, reduced chance of dementia, and potential for improved athletic performance. There are some suggestions that fasting can hurt you... search these feedback pages for a comment about ghrelin -- the comments are worth noting. The truth is that not every person will have the same reaction to fasting. Scholarly journals publish studies that find statistically significant results. But a statistically significant result does not imply that every person will exhibit the results reported in the study. The 5:2 fasting method won't hurt you in the short term. So, if you try it and you feel better, then good for you. If you try it and it just seems to make you hungry all the time, then try something else. This book offers hope to people like me who can (with considerable effort) lose weight, but slowly put it back on over several years. The problem with the South Beach diet is that there is no specific prescription. People like us need a rule-based approach. The Carbohydrate Addict's Diet is rule-based, and it works. The weakness of the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet (C-A) is that it has a high start-up cost. That is, the first three days are hell. It takes a lot of motivation to last through those first 3 days. After the first 3 days, the C-A diet works great and feels good. But, since the C-A diet has a daily rule-base, if you fall off the wagon for even one day, then you need to pay those 3 days of hell to get back on track. So, the C-A diet is great for losing weight, and it is healthy over the long term, but it is not sustainable for weight maintenance. Once you lose the weight using C-A, if you cheat a little, then pretty soon you are carb-addicted again, and a few years later you are back where you started. The potential advantage of the fasting strategy is that you can get back on the wagon with only one day of "penitence." So, the fasting strategy seems to be less vulnerable to weekends with the relatives, or week-long vacations. And it should work better for maintaining weight loss over the long term.

I'm one of those people who always has 10lbs to lose, and despite multiple diets over the past few years, I have only managed to gain and regain within the 5lb range (I've tried low carb, low kcal, retro Grapefruit/ 3 day diets, plant based, paleo, VLC, Atkins fat fast... you name it, I've tried it). Some how, I have never been able to stick to any of these diets, because ultimately, I get bored of them and start craving things like BBQ flavored Kettle Chips and Reeses pieces. For some reason, I managed to GAIN 4lbs during one of the elimination diets (yes, the one on the current NYT list) last month, spending miserable hours trying to ensure that I abstain from soy, gluten, dairy, etc etc etc. Miserable that I broke my weight record by 4lbs after being so "good" on a diet, I randomly looked up the diet books on amazon.co.uk. The Fast Diet came up, and I've never looked back since. What's amazing about the 5:2 diet is that you are allowed to eat whatever you want for the rest of the week. Now, I am one of those people who, when I'm told I can't eat a specific food group (carbs, sugar, artificial sweeteners, gluten, high GI foods, etc), I actually cannot stop thinking about them. This diet allows me to only watch what I eat for only 2 days a week, which --to me-- feels like a breeze, especially when I tell myself that I can eat whatever I want the next day. (Usually I just try to go to bed earlier so I can wake up early and start eating!!!) I've been repeatedly amazed when I discover that I've LOST weight after a week of cupcakes, fancy restaurant dinners, and the occasional reeses pieces indulgence. The key is really NOT to think about what to eat during the non-fast days. If you try to stick to a low kcal diet, or try to impose another diet during the non-fast days, it probably would not work as much. The whole point of the 5:2 diet is that it allows you a certain degree of freedom for most of the week where you have the flexibility to attend parties, go to business lunches, drink the occassional sugary cocktail, late night BonChon binge, etc. If you are one of those people with an avid social schedule, this diet would be PERFECT for you. If, on the other hand, you are one of those ppl who needs to be told exactly what to eat and would prefer an extremely structured plan, then something like Ian Smith's Shred would be optimal. Personally, I love this lifestyle. I normally just do Mondays and Thursdays for my fast days, which are days when I am busy and tend to "grab something" to eat anyways. I still have my weekends, and I can still schedule lunches and dinners and froyo/ burger/ tequila shot meetups with my friends MOST OF THE TIME, which is amazing considering the fact that this would be virtually impossible in any other diet. (Even for diets that allow you a "cheat day" (Choose to Lose, slow carb, etc)-- that's only 1 treat day, right? This diet allows for 5!!!) One you realize there are 5 days in the week in which you can eat anything, you tend to eat normally-- not binge-- which is exactly what happened to me. I've found out that this diet does not need much effort to stick to, since I am only paying attention 2 days/ week, instead of being super stressed out 24/ 7, thinking about what to eat next/ what to buy from grocery/ what I cannot eat. This allows me to stick to this diet during an important project. In the past, I would always gain weight during stressful periods, since I usually would not have the time to watch what I eat. This completely changed with the Fast Diet. One tip would be to bulk up on the veggies. One big bag of frozen broccoli is only 120kcals, and you can eat that with a steamed/ grilled chicken breast (140 kcals) and make it a quite filling dinner. The book contains quite a lot of recipes for the fast days as well, although I haven't really tried them since I've been too lazy to measure out everything. For on-the-go meals (for times when I am too lazy to cook), I tend to gravitate towards Vega One Bars, Journey Bars, fruits, and boiled eggs. (2 boiled eggs + 1 apple= about 250 kcals) Now, the results! Without much effort at all -- and in the midst of completing a huge, stressful, binge-inducing project -- I lost 7lbs in one month! That didn't feel like a diet at all! Simply amazing.

If you're unhappy with your weight, if you find diets ineffective or suspect they are less healthy than they should be - try this common sense and highly effective diet I did. Absolutely painless, effective and no weight rebound when you return to normal. Every book by Dr Mosley is evidence based and his advice is easy to follow. Condolences to friends & family of this wonderful man who helped so many people improve their health.

Weight loss and healthy nutrition philosophies usually focus on eating different foods, choosing what to eat, and constantly consuming something. However, this book takes a different approach: it explains that by not eating—through fasting—the human body can renew itself in the most effective way, helping regulate metabolism and strengthen resistance against diseases. It presents fasting as one of the most powerful methods for true physical renewal….

Esta dieta es fácil de seguir por siempre, es muy bien pensado por el fasting intermitente, y con recetas sabrosas...

EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE AND EASY VERY effective AND easy. No other diet works for me. Indeed whatever other diet and/or exercise regimen I chose, ALL of them proved very difficult to follow on the long term and not very effective: my body always got used pretty fast to them, which soon stopped almost completely any further weight loss. The FAST DIET, however is: 1. Easy to follow, as it only entails two 500 calories days per week (600 calories for men), with no restrictions at all on the other five days. 2. VERY effective: weight loss varies from one person to another between one to two pounds per week. 3. The weight loss DOES NOT SLOW down as time passes, because with only two, non-consecutive calorie restriction days per week, the body never has a chance to enter the starving mode by slowing metabolism. 4. This diet involves NO MUSCLE LOSS, which contributes to the stabilization of metabolism. EXCELLENT book with both concise and detailed information that allows for an application of intermittent fasting that is flexible and adaptable to a wide variety of personal preferences, and is based on solid, ground braking scientific research.

I'm so, so glad I bought a copy of this book. I've read it from cover to cover devouring every single word and I think I might just have hit the jackpot this time. I've been dieting for many years, I’ve tried them all I reckon, and they’ve all been tough with nothing to look forward to but misery, and as it always happens, I lose about 1st 7lb and then I plateau. I'm one of the unfortunate few that when I plateau it lasts for weeks and weeks and weeks rather than just a week or two like everyone else, it continues until I get so disheartened, I just give up hope altogether and go straight back to gaining weight and I end up weighing even more than I did when I started. MM talks about this and explains what every other diet book writer simply refuse to address properly. He explains why and what's going on in my body, he tells me not to panic, he points out the positives, he understands the level of frustration, loss of hope, the sheer desperation, and he encourages me not to give up and how/what I should do to get the weight loss going again, in other words, he GETS ME and all the thousands of others just like me and he’s given me hope and dare I say it, a virtual hug of reassurance. Provided you read every single page from cover to cover, this book will answer every question you have about this type of diet and why it works. There are 3 stages to go through. You don't have to do the first stage if you don't want to you can start with stage 2 which is mainly what this book is about and then when you reach your desired body weight you slip gently and easily into stage 3 which is the lifetime maintenance diet of 6:1 where you only FAST on one day a week, the really easy stage. I'm going to start with the Rapid weight loss programme which is basically 0:7, where every day is basically a FAST day with just 600 cals for Women, (800 cals for Men) to spend every single day and then go into the stage two which is the 5:2. the stage were you only fast on 2 days a week (rather than 7 in stage 1) and eat what you want for 5 days, within reason of course and mindful of everything he teaches you. Stage 1 is definitely going to be hard but I'm getting desperate to get this weight off (5st), MM suggests 3 to 12 weeks in stage 1 but I know I won't be able to live without my white carbs for so long so I can't see me getting beyond 3 weeks in this stage but that's ok, the 5:2 will achieve the same results, but it'll just take a bit longer that's all. To give you some idea about menus you might want to read the COMPANION to this book, the FAST 800 KETO RECIPE BOOK written by both Michael and is wife Clare Bailey. It’s packed with wonderful meals which look really tasty and are designed for the FAST days. Thankfully I ordered a copy of that at the same time as this one, you’ll have everything you need to get started. Do yourself a favour and buy both books, you won’t be sorry, I’m definitely not. SUNDAY 30/7/23 UPDATE – Ok so today marks the end of my 14th week on stage one of this diet and I thought it might help you to know how its working for me. I have lost exactly 2st 4lb, that’s an average of 2lbs 2ounces per week. Not much I know, it’s slow going but I’m encouraged that I’m at least getting somewhere at last. I started out on 600 cals per day divided into 2 meals and it’s been hard work staying motivated and on target but I’ve remained determined throughout. I keep a strict record of everything, I weigh myself first thing every Sunday morning after I’ve visited the loo and am stark naked. My scales are put in exactly the same spot every week, so an uneven or slightly sloping floor doesn’t affect my reading. I hit my plateau at the end of the 10th week when I was shocked and devastated to discover that I had GAINED 2lbs. At first I felt desperately sorry for myself and just wanted to stuff my face silly with all the things that I’m not allowed. BUT I didn’t. I sat down and gave myself a ruddy good talking to. I told myself, “This is entirely YOUR fault, YOU did this to yourself and if you want to be slim again you have to work out the cause and fix it. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and "Just bleep Do It" and remember, don’t lose sight of how far you’ve come already”. END OF RANT TO MYSELF! My next step was to think hard about where I’d gone wrong. It took me a while to realise that it wasn’t because Id increased portion sizes because I weigh, measure and calorie count everything, it was simply because 600 cals per day was now too much, my calorie intake was higher than my calorie burning and what was ok at the start was NOT ok now. I immediately dropped my cals to 400 per day but all that did was keep me stuck in the plateau, so I now know my maintenance level. BUT, I still have a lot of weight to lose so I dropped to 300 cals per day. I’m riddled with arthritis from jaw to toes in every bone and joint and I can’t yet exercise properly without severe pain and causing loss of balance so at the moment I’m totally reliant on what I eat. I know a Doctor would be worried about that but I tried a water diet for 3 days and nothing happened, I didn’t lose weight I just retained all the water in my body. Right now I’m fighting tooth and nail to lose every single pound of weight but at least I’ve started losing again. I’ll keep going until I reach my target, I’m determined not to give up, I have to keep going. SO, on 300 cals I can confirm I’ve lost 12lbs which really is excellent if you think about it but I cant stay on 300cals for long, it’s too difficult. I’m still eating very healthy, meal one is all about pure protein, meal 2 is all about vegetables/salads. To make sure all bases are properly covered I also take one dessertspoon of extra virgin olive oil straight from the spoon and one tablespoon of Aspalls Apple Cyder Vinegar mixed with water for the electrolytes, every single day. Extra Virgin means no bad oils have been added to bulk out the olive oil, EVOO is completely pure 100% olive oil (I did my homework on this) If it doesn’t say Extra Virgin on the bottle then it’s not pure, it’s had all sorts of crap oils mixed in. I also take multi vitamins as advised by Michael Moseley in this book. Yes, I do get hungry on just 300 cals but I’m very focussed on my target weight and I know it won’t be forever, just a few more months. THE POSITIVES – I can walk up/down stairs in the normal way and much faster than before, I can get in and out of bed and the bath more easily, I don’t have anywhere near as many nasty falls as before but if I do fall I can get myself up again, I can get off the sofa without struggling now, I can stand for much longer periods, I can kneel on a cushion in front of my fridge to wash it out properly and surprisingly, my arthritis pain is improving, not massively but there’s definitely an improvement. In visual terms I can see the changes in my mirror and with the tape measure. I’ve lost 4 inches round my waist, 4 round my bust and 2inches round my hips and it really shows. gone are my puffy face and swollen hands and feet and I can now cross my legs at the knee and have the top leg hang downwards rather than stick up in the air. Putting socks on is now easy, no belly in the way to stop me. Silly things I know but they matter to me and it means I’m getting my life back, albeit slowly but I’m getting it back. I started out labelled as obese, I’m now labelled overweight, my BMI was 30.95, its now 25.62. One day I will be back to jogging 3 full miles x 3 times a week like I did before, and I won’t be letting my arthritis ruin my life anymore. ITS RUDDY HARD WORK and you’ll have your bad days BUT ITS WORTH IT, you have to JFDI coz no-one else can do it for you.