EXERCISE ON THE 5:2 FAST DIET

Exercise is essential for both overall health and healthy weight loss. You can lose eight pounds without exercise, but you still might not like the results. We’ve all seen thin men and women who looked soft, pale, and flabby. The purpose of losing weight should be to look fit and healthy and to feel strong and energetic. That requires not only good nutrition but regular exercise as well.

A complete exercise program needs to include both cardio activity and some form of strength training. Cardio helps you to burn calories, improves cardiovascular health, and can also help with high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Strength training builds lean muscle (which helps you burn more calories throughout the day), improves bone health, and has been shown to improve longevity.

You should aim to get at least thirty minutes of cardio activity three times per week and at least twenty minutes of strength training three times per week. These are minimums and you can certainly do more, but if your schedule is tight you can get a great workout in less than thirty minutes.

Interval Training for Fast Results in Less Time

One way to get fast results in a very short time is through interval training. Interval training is simply alternating periods of physical work. You can do this to combine strength training with cardio or use it for cardio alone. For instance:

• Do three sets of bench presses, followed by two minutes of jumping rope, followed by three sets of biceps curls, and so on.

• Walk on a flat terrain for five minutes and then walk up two flights of stairs. Then walk on flat terrain for another five minutes, and so on.

• Alternate five laps using the breaststroke with five laps using the backstroke stroke and so on.

High-Intensity Interval Training

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a variation of interval training that is much more effective, but also much more intense. It’s a cardio workout that can get you incredible results in just a few minutes per day, but it’s not for everyone.

With high-intensity interval training, you alternate very short bursts of very hard work with longer periods of more moderate work.

The high-intensity intervals generally last from ten to thirty seconds and the moderate periods from two to four minutes. Almost any cardio activity can be adapted to high-intensity interval training. You can run at a moderate pace for two minutes, sprint for thirty seconds, and then go back to running. Repeat this pattern for a total of about twenty minutes, beginning and ending with a moderate period. You can also adapt HIIT to cycling, stair climbing, and several other cardio activities in which it’s easy to change your pace.

HIIT has been shown to have a huge impact on metabolism. You can expect to burn more calories (even when you’re resting) for about forty-eight hours after a HIIT workout. HIIT workouts also typically burn as many calories in twenty minutes as sixty minutes of the same activity in the steady-state version.

Whether you choose to do interval training or not, be sure to get at least three strength training workouts and three cardio workouts per week. You can do these on the same day or on alternating days, but as you’ll soon read, strenuous exercise is not recommended on fasting days. Schedule your workouts so that you can get by with a moderate walk or some stretching on your fasting days. Cardio doesn’t have to be tough to be good for you.

Some good cardio choices are walking, swimming, cycling, dancing, and rowing. Strength training can be done at home or the gym, with weight machines or dumbbells. You can also get a complete and effective workout using body-weight resistance moves such as push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, and the like.

You may want to get through your first week or two of the 5:2 Fast Diet before you commit to a regular workout program. It will be helpful for you to know more about how your body adjusts to the diet, how you feel on fasting days, and what times of day may be best for you to work out. Most people report improved energy levels and strength when following an intermittent fasting diet, but everyone adjusts to the diet in their own time. Until then, a thirty-minute walk or some stretching exercises will still do your body good.

Exercise on Fasting Days

Although you’ve probably read or heard assertions that you can continue doing intense workouts even on fasting days, we don’t recommend it—at least not in the first few weeks of the 5:2 Fast Diet.

Our bodies are extremely adaptable mechanisms, but each body adapts in its own time frame. While one person’s metabolism may adjust itself to sourcing stored energy (in the form of stored fat) more readily, others may take longer. This is due to differences in eating and exercise habits prior to starting the diet, as well as hormone fluctuations.

On fasting days, you’re eating enough to function and even function well, but you may not have the stored energy from non-fasting days or from stored fat to support a strenuous workout. The most benign result would be that you simply lack the energy or strength to perform the workout to a standard that makes it worthwhile. Even if you do get through your workout, you might find yourself far hungrier than you should be afterward.

More serious effects of working out too hard on fasting days could range from dizziness or feeling faint to muscle cramping or even injury.

On fasting days, we recommend that you do get some physical exercise, but only at an easy or moderate level. This might mean swimming laps at a moderate pace, taking a thirty-minute walk, or doing yoga or stretching exercises.

All physical activity is good for your body and will help you lose weight. Keep your strenuous workouts for non-fasting days and give your body a bit of a break when you’re fasting.