The 5:2 Diet: Feast for 5 Days, Fast for 2 Days to Lose Weight and Revitalize Your Health

by Kate Harrison

Discover the power of intermittent fasting—a way of eating that’s sustainable, flexible, and beneficial to both body and mind. Intermittent fasting is the quickest and healthiest way to lose weight—and keep it off. With The 5:2 Diet, you can eat all your favorite foods for five days each week as long as you limit your caloric intake to 500 calories on the other two days. For anyone who has struggled to shed pounds, this approachable, motivational program makes it easy • Slim down naturally• Increase energy• Reset your metabolism• Heal your body on a cellular levelFull of firsthand testimonials from successful dieters so you can find the best way to tailor the technique and make sure it works for you, The 5:2 Diet also provides meal plans and recipes to keep you on track as you slim down, stay healthy, and fight the onset of cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and heart disease.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2013

About the author

Kate was born in Wigan, and lived in more than a dozen places when she was growing up, including England, Scotland, and the Netherlands. She trained as a print journalist and then worked for the BBC as a reporter and Education Correspondent, before switching to behind the scenes producing on programmes including Newsround and Panorama. Her final 'proper' job involved coming up with TV programme ideas for the BBC whilst sitting on beanbags. She is a dab hand at writing on white boards.

Reviews

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not just another diet!

Really enjoyed this book, well written and easy to read. A simple way to change your relationship with food! Hopeful!

[DieBaerin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probier es gerade in der dritten Woche aus. Scheint zu funktionieren. Daher Daumen hoch.

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good way to get into fasting for sure. At your own pace and flexible.

[Glasgowgal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, easy read about this lifestyle (not a diet!). So many wonderful benefits, in addition to weight loss.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

First things first - I've really come to hate books about diets. Not just diet diets, I mean diets in the sense of, I don't know, "food lifestyle" or whatever. I've actually read quite a few of them, and I basically it feels like you don't even have to write more than one kind of book, just do a search and replace whatever you think works best/is healthiest at the moment. The part where she writes that it could be that maybe perhaps this particular diet can have other positive side effects made me laugh out loud with its wishy-washy-ness, as did the fakeness of the diary entries.

However, once you're past the introductory part what follows are actually helpful tips on how to do this - basically what you do is you eat normally five days a week and not more than 500 calories (if you're a woman) on the remaining two. She includes doable recipes as well as suggestions of foods, and as fake as the first part sounded, the second part feels really encouraging and, well, helpful. So much so that I actually decided to try it.

I've been looking for something to get control back over my eating habits which, during the last two years, have almost dangerously spun out of control. And while it isn't certainly just this diet, at least in January I have been able to get back on track. I've done two days of fasting so far, so measuring weight loss isn't really possible, but limiting the fasting to two days a week really helps me with a lot of things. First of all, it's surprisingly easy to not eat more than 500 calories a day - what I do is wait as long as possible with eating anything, because it's only once I eat that I get hungry. And as I kept pushing off eating I realized how often I was tempted to eat something because it had become a habit - like when I was playing Skyrim and the loading screen was doing its thing and I stretched my hand out for a snack I didn't really need. And well, the thing is, a day really isn't that long. I was especially curious about the second day, which was yesterday, and it wasn't more difficult than the first (where it felt more like an adventure, perhaps). It really helps knowing that you can eat whatever you want the next today, and so sticking to your resolve feels rather rewarding.

I don't know whether I will really stick with it, but for know I am glad for gaining back some measure of control over my eating habits. I don't know how doable this is on the long run anyway - I don't think I could work during a fast day, and not eating anything on the days I could spend cooking something special does feel a bit like a waste. But even if I don't end up doing it regularly, putting in the occasional fast day might feel good. Maybe perhaps, you know ;)

[Brindi Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't consider this a diet at all...it's definitely a lifestyle. I really enjoyed this book because I am all for fasting and I do this quite often already. I will fast all food in general, or certain types of food, or at certain times; I'm also big on religious fasting (which, btw, is the true nature of fasting...everything else is technically dieting). I wish more people would jump on this bandwagon. It's definitely the most natural, and it's very rejuvenating. And, like I always say, everything in moderation.

And, honestly, one day of eating less (since it's not a true fast) will not kill you. It does your body good to go hungry and helps you to differentiate between real hunger and boredom on your "normal" days.

I would have rated this 5 stars but I was sadden with the lack of fresh meal choices, but I understand pre-made/store-bought items are what most people rely on. I prefer to make my own food.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nicht so richtig meines. Die Grundidee finde ich zwar echt gut!, aber die Art wie dieses Buch geschrieben ist, gefällt mir überhaupt nicht.
Immer wieder die Erzählungen von Leuten aus der Facebook-Gruppe der Autorin gingen mir auf den Keks. Ich hätte für mehr medizinischen Background und mehr Rezete gerne drauf verzichtet.
Und ich kann mich nicht entscheiden ob ich es gut oder schlecht finden soll, dass das "Literatur"verzeichniss aus einer Link-Liste besteht, in der u.a. Wikipedia auftaucht. :-( praktisch, ja, aber fundiert ist das nicht, auch wenn ich mindestens einen link zu einer tatsächlichen Fachzeitschrift gefunden habe.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is great to read during fast days for encouragement when your willpower is weak. It also gives a variety of ways to go about doing this diet to achieve wellness and health.