Introduction: Intermittent Fasting and Why 5:2 Works

If you’re like most dieters, you’ve probably already sampled a bunch of different diets and jumped on the bandwagon for various weight-loss crazes. Maybe you found that they worked well for a while, but then became either unmanageable or too expensive—or, the biggest diet killer of them all, boring.

The 5:2 Diet is different because it really does keep your life as normal as possible. For two days, and not in a row, you need to be extra-specially conscious of what you eat. Otherwise, you’re pretty much on your own. You want to eat ice cream or savor a bacon cheeseburger on a non-fast day? That’s okay. Have a cocktail on a day you’re not fasting? Go for it. The 5:2 Diet takes the part of your dieting life that’s about “going without” and condenses it to about 20 percent of your life.

Lose weight working at it only about 20 percent of the time? How can that possibly work? Does it work? The 5:2 Diet targets a very specific component of weight-loss management: metabolism. Causing your body to go without in a regulated fashion actually helps you reset your metabolism and rev up your body’s fat-burning ability. When you maximize your body’s ability to burn fat, you start losing inches, and mainly in that stubborn mid-section area. And the best part is that while this is all going on, you’re only technically “dieting” two days a week, so the deprivation part barely even has time to sink in. Add to this that there are ways (at least 150 in this book) to feel less deprived on those fasting days, and you have a diet you can stick to and get the results you’ve been craving.

Now you may be thinking that in all the research you’ve done about losing weight, one of the main ways a person can pretty much guarantee they’re not going to lose weight is by not eating. The more you understand about fasting and the better you understand it, the more you’ll see that fasting isn’t starving at all. It’s simply a matter of cutting down calories drastically some of the time. While the normal calorie allowance intake for men is about 2,500, and for women, 2,000, the 5:2 Diet calls for 600 calories for men and 500 for women on fast days. But is it even possible to eat enjoyably on that little amount of calories? It is!

If food plays a major role in your enjoyment of life, fasting could actually work well for you. If you can’t subsist on protein shakes and carrot sticks, you don’t have to. With the 5:2 Diet you can eat food. Real food. Good food. You just have to monitor the calories your foods harbor, and be cautious with how you prepare foods as well as the portions you consume.

Each of the recipes in this book is no more than 300 calories, and many are even less than that. There’s even a special dessert section in the back that will give you low-calorie rewards to look forward to on non-fasting days.

Some people enjoy the 5:2 Diet so much, they make it a lifestyle choice to fast one or two days a week, and this isn’t a bad thing. Scientific studies have proven that the benefits of fasting go beyond simply shedding excess pounds. An intermittent diet can, among other benefits, delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease, and may also prolong your life.

As with any weight-loss plan, it isn’t just about what you eat (or don’t eat). Yes, you can lose weight on the 5:2 Diet, but you can maximize the weight you lose by adding or upping your exercise. This doesn’t mean going to the gym religiously; it could be as simple as deciding to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Parking in the farthest spot away from the store in the parking lot. Walking just half an hour a day. Stick with your plan, add more “steps” to your life, and you too will see results.

I hope the recipes in this book will help you to enjoy satisfying foods on your fasting days, as well as help you make smart food choices on the other days of the week. Reaching for plain or sparkling water instead of a sugary juice or soda, substituting leaner meats for fattier ones. These small steps you take can set you on a road to a healthier, longer-living you.