Shape up for summer and make friends with your swimsuit again.
Believe it or not summer is approaching, and whilst the sun isn’t shining your smile can.
Whether you want to lose pounds or stones, 5:2 is the diet everyone is talking about – even the celebs!
The diet was featured on BBC’s Horizon programme Eat Fast and Live Long and it has become increasingly popular, and is very straight forward. The 5:2 diet sustains weight loss and increases longevity. Who doesn’t want that? So what does it entail?
It’s based on intermittent fasting but it still allows you to eat what you want and that includes treats! It literally does allow you to have your cake and eat it too.
Its simple, you eat normally for five days and fast for two. A fasting day should consist of two meals around 250 calories each, depending on the sex of the person. Women 500 calories and men 600.
So what are the benefits? It has a 65% success rate over a 40% standard diet and it's not restrictive so you can easily adapt it to fit into your lifestyle with minimum disruption. Not only will you lose weight but it gives you all the nutrients you need in the process. It claims to increase your lifespan and make you feel and look younger, and who doesn’t want that? It also claims to protect against cancers, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Surely it's not all good right?
Well there are a few side effects including sleep deprivation, dizziness, anxiety, and tiredness so beware. You may also feel weak when doing physical exercise on your fasting days and there is the danger of binge eating too.
Of course, the side effects will depend on you as the individual, but with the positives outweighing the negatives, why don’t you get on the craze, and get your beach body ready? I'm certainly going to give it a go...
I will do a feedback on the 5:2 diet in a later post for any of you who are curious. Have you ever tried the 5:2 diet? Leave me a comment.
Abbie xoxo
