The New 5:2 (Mediterranean Diet Combined with Intermittent Fasting!)

a healthy green chicken salad

Hi everyone!

So excited to find out about the new 5:2! It is a Mediterranean diet combined with intermittent fasting by Michael Mosley. If you follow my blog you will know I’m a huge fan of both the 5:2 and Mediterranean diets. In fact they are the only two diet plans that have ever really worked for me. I had been discussing in my previous posts about embarking on the Mediterranean diet as it is the best diet in the world (voted by the top medical health practitioners worldwide year after year). As you may know, I am on the Mediterranean diet at the moment and I’m enjoying the health benefits – especially being allowed to have wine! Definitely a plus point. I don’t buy processed food anymore and I waltz past the sweets section in the supermarket these days without a second glance. It helps that I usually have a toddler and a 3 year old with me in the trolley so I’m steering clear anyway!

I do like the odd square of Lindt dark chocolate though so I tend to have small bar of that in the press for those unavoidable chocolate cravings. I know it is probably a better idea to go cold turkey on the chocolate altogether but I basically only need a square or two and thats enough. I guess its better than eating biscuits. After all, dark chocolate is good for you and is reported to even aid in weight loss as wrote about in my previous post on gut health! Hurray!

a popcorn health infographic

Another great snack to replace crisps and junk is popcorn. It is actually a wholegrain and therefore allowed on the Mediterranean diet. I tend to have nuts, seeds, berries and fresh fruit on hand at all times for snacking on as those are all filling and taste great. So getting back to this fabulous new diet. It combines my two faves, the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet by Michael Mosley which I wrote a few blog posts on previously. Here is a link to the first post I wrote about it as it explains it in detail – My 5:2 Diet Experience.

You have probably heard of intermittent fasting as it is a fast way to lose weight but it is actually super healthy too. Most diets that help you to lose weight quickly tend to be either bad for your health or unsustainable, meaning you either punish your body in some way or else the weight goes back on soon after. Yo-yo dieting is one of the worst possible things for your health. It is where people crash diet and lose a large amount of weight quickly, then pile the weight back on quickly once the diet is over. This becomes a vicious circle and they often go back on a similar crash diet and this recurs year after year. Our bodies react badly to such fluctuations in weight and it affects our health.

While some may see intermittent fasting as too restrictive on the body, it is in fact the opposite. Our ancestors ate a much smaller diet than we do nowadays and in actual fact, so-called ‘starvation mode’ has been found to be a dieting myth! For years I believed I needed to keep up my metabolism by eating every couple of hours in order to stop my body from fat-storing that read about countless times in magazines etc. A study was done and here is what Michael Mosley confirms –

‘In a recent experiment, researchers took 11 healthy volunteers and asked them to stay in a metabolic chamber (a room where they precisely measure your metabolic rate – the rate at which the body burns energy while resting) living on nothing but water.

‘By day three their metabolic rates had risen by 14 per cent. This was probably due to a rise in a hormone called noradrenaline, which is known to burn fat.

‘If they had continued, I’m sure the volunteers’ metabolic rates would eventually have fallen, not least because they would have begun to lose significant amounts of weight and become malnourished.

‘But, in the short term, there is no evidence that starvation mode is anything other than a myth. ‘

So there you go peeps, your metabolic rate actually rises when fasting. Obviously you should never go for a prolonged time without food – Don’t try that at home please! The idea of the 5:2 intermittent fasting is that you pick 2 days out of 7 where you eat only 800 calories. This means you are fasting but with minimal calories so you don’t get malnourished. You should choose healthy meals with low fat and plenty of vegetables. It is a good idea to meal plan for those 2 days. It is also important that you don’t do the 2 days together. Once they are spaced at least one day apart thats fine. I used to chop and change mine but I found Mondays and Wednesdays or Thursdays to be a good choice. The start of the week and midweek are less challenging I find but its entirely up to you. I have added some 5:2 diet recipes on this blog to give you some ideas. Here are a couple – Warm roasted vegetable salad and Tomato soup.

I usually have a chicken breast because it fills me up so I might have vegetable based lunch and then an oven cooked chicken breast cooked in foil (retains juiciness) and a portion of veg for dinner. I have a couple of cups of tea with milk since I’m addicted! Then I will try to stick to green tea throughout the day. I have to say though, the first week is a bit harder as you are just getting used to the calorie deficit but after a week (2 days intermittent fasting out of 7) it becomes way easier. The best part about intermittent fasting for me – apart from the amazing health benefits, is that you begin to really enjoy your food so much more on the days you don’t have to fast.

I worried that I would binge in the following days but your appetite becomes smaller and you even eat less! That is why I love this diet so much because it trains your body to crave less food. It also allows you to not calorie count on the days off. Meaning it doesn’t become miserable like some other diets that are too restrictive. You can still eat your fave foods and not feel a bit guilty. However, moderation is the key and I do believe if you want to give up sweets and sugar it is best to avoid sugar. You can check your BMI (Body Mass Index) online here to see how many calories you should eat on your non-fasting days for best results based on your personal weight loss goals and height etc. Here is a link > BMI Checker. Like I said, I always have my 70% cocoa dark chocolate in case. Remove all those biscuits and sweets from your sight altogether! Even if you say they’re for the kids, you will still have the temptation if they’re lying around. Check out this recipe I made with my 3 year old recently, it is a healthier alternative with less calories – Healthy oatmeal cups

Righto so the 5:2 diet has huge array of health benefits such as lengthening your lifespan, eliminating certain cancers and life threatening diseases associated with ageing and diabetes and more. Watch the amazing documentary here and you will be convinced! It is what made me give the 5:2 a try in the first place –

 

I hope you took the time to watch it since it really is a proper in-depth explanation of the wonderful health benefits involved and it really motivates you to take action. Do please let me know your thoughts in the comments as I was completely blown away by it. It may seem daunting but actually I loved the diet. I was losing the weight week after week and felt fantastic!

The best thing about the new 5:2 diet is that you don’t need to stick to the 500 calorie limit anymore. Woohoo! It is increased to 800 calories now and produces the same results. There is a similar diet by Mosley called the 8 week blood sugar diet which is for people who need to lose weight quickly and it helps to balance blood sugar for diabetes sufferers. It is also an 800 calorie diet but this one is a 7 day plan so it’s 800 calories every day. Not sure if I would manage that to be honest but I’m not that overweight anyway so I’m happy I can stick with the 5:2.

By some wonderful coincidence, I discovered this new 5:2 Mediterranean diet plan a few weeks into my Mediterranean diet – read about it here. I was complaining that I didn’t think I had the willpower to go back on the 5:2 intermittent fasting diet as I was just back from a long ‘holiday’ where I was overeating big time. It felt too difficult to delve straight into it so I took the softer and more sustainable option for myself at the time. That helped me to start eating healthily again and start enjoying the benefits, even though the weight loss is slower. The whole idea was to consider it as a lifestyle rather than a diet. So now that I am happily losing some weight, feeling healthier and fitter from the 30 mins a day exercise, I feel ready to kick it up a gear.

Summer is the best time to do so, with more activities, walking, less fatty foods, more salads and just being outdoors more helps. Everyone tends to pack on a few pounds in winter so summer is a great time to diet. Both the 5:2 and the Mediterranean diets are sustainable lifestyle plans. Once you have reached your target weight on the 5:2 diet, you can maintain the weight loss by cutting back to one day intermittent fasting per week. This helps your body continue to avail of all the fantastic health benefits and also keep the weight off.

Brilliantly, Michael Mosley has created the new 5:2 diet around the Mediterranean diet so that it is an even better, new and improved plan. You simply stick to the Mediterranean diet basics as mentioned in the previous post here. Then do your fasting on the 2 days a week but with an extra 300 calories than was previously advised in the original 5:2. So 800 calories will be much easier to stick to and not that restrictive! Yippee!!

I felt as though it was almost fate that I try this new 5:2 Mediterranean diet combined with intermittent fasting. I am starting today so I will report back how it going in the coming weeks. I will be bringing you some new 5:2 recipes for fast days as I will be trying them out myself! Stay tuned or subscribe for details. I am really excited and motivated about it now!

Guys, I could go on and on but I’m running out of time and I don’t want to overdo it so I’m just gonna leave you with * this recent article by Michael Mosely * for the Daily Mail where he explains everything in detail. It is where I originally found out about it so have read and check out those recipes too!

Take care and if you want to join me on this plan just pop a comment down below or send me a message through my contact form on the About page and I can add you to “My Fitness Pal” where we can help motivate each other to keep up that exercise too! Either way you can still tune in and follow me here 🙂

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So excited to find out about the new 5:2! It is a Mediterranean diet combined with intermittent fasting by Michael Mosley. If you follow my blog you will know I'm a huge fan of both the 5:2 and Mediterranean diets. In fact they are the only two diet plans that have ever really worked for me. I had been discussing in my previous posts about embarking on the Mediterranean diet as it is the best diet in the world (voted by the top medical health practitioners worldwide year after year).

Lots of love,

Ciara x

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2 Comments

  1. I have such a love/hate with the 5:2 but like you, increasing the calories to 800 and pairing it with the Mediterranean diet…Idk I think I could seriously make that a lifestyle…Thank you so much for your post!

    1. Hi Beth, it is so much easier to stick to now yeah! I was thinking the same for a while but delighted with this new 5:2 🙂