The 5:2 diet has been very popular of late, with everyone from celebrities to your colleagues going on it to shift excess weight, but what does it do for men? Could it help the men of Britain hit their weight-loss target? The success of the 5:2 diet is in its simplicity – you eat normally for five days then fast for two non-consecutive days. On your fasting days, you consume no more than 600 calories (in men; in women, it’s 500 on each day). This might look like two scrambled eggs for breakfast, and an evening meal of lentil stew or a small steak with some roasted vegetables. There is a restriction with your beverages, of course, so you really need to stick to water, herbal tea or avoid milk in your regular tea and coffee to stay within your calorie limits. There’s a theory behind the diet which suggests that early humans would have hunted for food and then feasted followed by a lengthy period where they wouldn’t have had any nutrition. This basic way of looking at food can help us to maintain a healthy weight, without having to avoid our favourite foods most of the week. However, there is limited amount of evidence to suggest that fasting assists with weight loss, prevents cognitive decline or increases your lifespan. There’s also a trap that many people get into which is binge eating on the days where you’re not fasting. Because the rule is that you can eat ‘what you want’ on your normal days, there’s a temptation to take that literally and gorge on sugary snacks and pizzas. Of course, this is still a diet and eating in such a way undoes all of the hard work you do on your fasting days.
So how does it work in men? The thinking behind the diet, of course, doesn’t change – as long as you stick to the rules properly, and don’t binge eat on your normal days, you do have the opportunity to lose weight in a relatively short space of time. The concept of intermittent fasting is that it’s easier to incorporate into your everyday life than traditional diets, and that eating a lot less for two days of the week will help you to lose weight. However, if you don’t eat properly and sensibly on your days when you’re not fasting, this plan doesn’t work in reality. If you can’t stick to a healthy diet, within reason, throughout the whole week, the 5:2 diet isn’t the best diet for you in order for you to lose weight. People who find this to be the case would probably be advised to change their existing diet to include less fatty foods – the results would probably be very much the same. As with any diet, you should speak to your GP before making any drastic changes to what you’re eating – this is especially the case with the 5:2 diet as fasting can be risky if you have any health conditions which could be exacerbated by it. It seems that if you’re trying to lose weight, the 5:2 diet only works for some, not all. If your motivation is low, this probably isn’t the best way to shift those extra pounds – in order to see any results, you need to be relatively strict all week, not just on two days, otherwise your hard work will be undone. This is something to consider if you’re trying to find an ‘easy’ way to lose weight.
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