Eat three healthy meals a day.
• Do NOT snack between meals and avoid processed food.
Cut out the rubbish. Keep the following items to a very bare minimum:
• biscuits (cookies) and cakes
• crisps (potato chips)
• non-diet fizzy drinks
• chocolate bars and sweets (candies)
• beer, lager and cider
If you follow these steps, you will have plenty of scope for tasty plates of food without excluding any food group, and it means that you will be able to have delicious pasta, bread, desserts and, of course, a glass or two of wine.
Remember that the recipes in this book are not just for fast days; they are perfect for your normal days too. Just add some extra carbohydrates, such as rice or potatoes, if necessary and make sure you eat three balanced meals every day.
3 Exercise three times a week
While rules 1 and 2 are for weight loss, exercise makes the most of the weight loss by reducing the flab, toning your body and zapping the cellulite.
If you are new to exercise, then perhaps the best way to get started is walking. Start with walking 15 minutes a day, three days a week and work up from there. Walking is great if you are just starting to exercise as it is proven to significantly improve fitness levels. Walking increases the blood flow to the muscles, improving circulation and heart function. Swimming is also a suitable option if you are just getting started with exercise.
If you are fit and exercise regularly then you should find Sculpt’s 5:2 Bikini Diet exercise plan easy and enjoyable, ready to get your body in shape for the summer – fast!
By following the workout plan three times a week, you can expect great results in just four weeks. There’s more detail about the benefits of combining exercise with the 5:2 diet in the ‘Getting beach fit’ chapter (see here).
Not just slimming
This chapter simply explains the medical reasons for the diet’s success. When you understand how healthy you will become on this diet – as well as slimming easily – you will keep to this lifestyle forever. The slimming results on the 5:2 Bikini Diet are stunning. And not just that, losing weight healthily and easily improves your overall health. There is also increasing evidence that this new breed of fast diet, of which the 5:2 diet is the easiest and most popular, has some incredible benefits for your long-term health too.
What happens in our bodies when we fast?
Based on the opinion of several fasting experts, there is now a picture developing of how the scientists believe intermittent fasting changes the way our bodies work, giving us additional health benefits as we age. Here I provide a simple approach to the science, which I hope will make it clearer to anyone with a general interest, but without a scientific background.
When we deprive our body of food for longer than normal, for example during a fast, we notice changes in some of our hormones. As the levels of certain hormones change, this has a knock-on effect on different types of cells within our body. One of these hormones, Insulin-like Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1), is proven to decrease as we fast. IGF-1 is produced in the liver and is similar to insulin. Its purpose in the body is to make cells grow and produce new cells. When levels of IGF-1 decrease, our body produces fewer new cells and concentrates on repairing old ones. This state of ‘repair’ is very beneficial as it slows down the ageing process and may reduce the risks of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Another hormone that fasting seems to affect is a nerve cell growth factor in the brain, which changes the way neurons in the brain grow. This research is in its infancy and has yet to be tested on humans, but there are several indicators that suggest this is the mechanism that ultimately leads to a reduction in risk factors for cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
There’s a final exciting difference between standard calorie-restricted diets and intermittent fasting. Any weight you lose doing intermittent fasting is body fat! If this is not a reason to do the 5:2 diet over anything else then I don’t know what is.
Other diets may show a decrease in body fat and muscle, but with intermittent fasting it seems to be just fat. Scientists are unsure at present why this is true, but it has been seen in a variety of studies so there is a good scientific basis for these findings. The most likely explanation is that when we fast, we have to use resources in our body (i.e. fat) for fuel rather than the food we have eaten. It may also be the key as to why the 5:2 diet is so successful for so many people.
Optimizing the benefits – do we need to skip meals?
The simple answer is yes. If your primary goal is health benefits, not weight loss, the science suggests you should eat only one meal on a fast day. Remember that how you consume calories over the fast day does not affect weight loss. Top scientists from the United States are in agreement that to get the absolute best out of intermittent fasting you need to either fast completely for 24 hours or, at most, have one small meal in the middle of the 24-hour period. The tests where they try other kinds of calorie restriction over the 24-hour period just haven’t been done yet, so it’s hard to tell for sure whether the science backs this up.
If you’re reading this and thinking, Help, there’s no way I can only eat once a day, then you’re not alone. And this is why I do not advocate skipping meals unless it’s something that appeals to you and it’s something you can see yourself sticking to in the long term.
First and foremost this is because it does not affect the rate at which you slim. If your main objective is to lose weight and gain the health benefits that come with sustained weight loss, then stick to the 500/600 calories on your fast days, but do not worry about when you eat them.
Secondly, although the health benefits may not be optimized, you are still getting some of them. You are fasting and your body is going into repair mode so don’t panic if you are not fully ‘optimized’. Is anything in your life fully optimized? I know it’s not the case for me.
Finally, and most importantly, what do you think is best: having a strict fast with only one meal but finding it so hard and de-motivating that you give up after a month or eating two or three small meals on your fast day and finding it sustainable in the long term?
I’d say the latter is by far the best option, but use your own preference. If you find it easier to skip a meal, then do so. I often, but not always, skip lunch on a fast day. But if three meals a day works for you then don’t change it. You are doing great as you are.
What’s in a name?
There are many different names for diets that are the same or similar to the 5:2 diet, so it’s no wonder people are getting confused.
