✣ 5:2 Fasting ✣ The Keto Diet ✣ ✣ How to eat Paleo✣ The Sirtfood Diet ✣
NEW YEAR NEW YOU
Want to shift those stubborn pounds in 2024, but not sure where to start? From fasting and ditching processed foods to cutting carbs and eating a diet rich in ‘sirtfoods’, over the next eight pages, four readers have shared their stories of what worked for them. Plus, we have tips on how to tell which diet is suitable for you. It could be the inspiration you need for a happy and healthier new year ahead.
THE5:2DIET
Want an eating plan where nothing is off the menu?
Intermittent fasting could be the answer
The 5:2 diet is an eating trend that’s really stuck around. Created more than a decade ago, it’s now one of the most popular forms of intermittent fasting. The reason? When it comes to losing weight, often the hardest part is giving up the foods you enjoy. Unlike many other popular diets, there’s no specific restriction onwhat foods you can and can’t eat – just how many you can have.
Followers fast on two days of the week. ‘Initially, they were advised to eat a very reduced number of calories on fasting days,’ says Rob Hobson, head of nutrition at Healthspan. ‘The diet has since been revised to restrict energy intake to 800 calories on fasting days, while sticking to a healthy low-carb, Mediterranean diet the rest of the week.’
It’s simple, but only works if you eat well on the five non-restricted days, as you have to stay in deficit the whole way through, or at least for most of it, for weight loss to occur. It can be difficult for those who are overweight and eat a lot, as the reduction could be quite substantial.
Kate Harrison, 55, from Brighton
‘When I was 44, I was the heaviest I’d been – 11.5st. Even when I managed to slim, I’d always put weight back on. Becoming unhealthier as each year passed made me unhappy.
Then, one evening, I watched Dr Michael Mosley’s documentary on fasting for weight loss. Back then, there was little information on how to do it, but I experimented and did what we now know is the 5:2 diet – restricting calories for two days a week and eating my favourite foods the rest of the time. I was hungry at first, but it felt different to other diets. Knowing there was an ‘end’ to the fasting motivated me – it felt sustainable.
I formed a Facebook group, swapping tips, and started losing weight. I’d set myself a dream weight of 10st, healthy for m
