The 5:2 Diet Book: Feast for 5 Days a Week and Fast for 2 to Lose Weight, Boost Your Brain and Transform Your Health

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Breakfast: Perfect to grab on the go, an Alpen Fruit and Nut Bar starts your day off at 109 calories. Calories so far = 109 Lunch: One mini Quorn Sausage Roll (48cals) will stop you from missing comfort foods. Serve with a salad made up of 30grams of spinach (7cals), 4 cherry tomatoes (16 calls), and a medium cucumber (24cals). Calories so far = 193.

Another group was asked to eat normally five days a week, but to eat a 650-calorie, low-carbohydrate diet on the other two days; and Slice a wholemeal bagel in half and toast, spread with cream cheese and enjoy. Serve with an apple or save for later.Breakfast:A 36g serving of Quaker’s porridge made with 180ml skimmed milk (216cals) will keep you going throughout the day. Calories so far = 216. Dinner:Forget a Thai takeaway and try this green miso noodle bowl instead. At just 198cals it’s your better option by a mile. The concept sounds simple and indeed it is, but over the week your body has typically been denied around 3000 calories. The concept also makes intuitive sense, in that during those days of low-calorie intake, the response of our body is to lower levels of insulin thereby causing stored sources of sugar in our fat cells to be used as energy. After three months, the women on the 5:2 diets had lost an average of 4.2kgs, 3.6kg of which was fat. This was twice as much as the full-time dieters, who had lost an average of 2kg of fat. Toast a slice of your favourite wholemeal bread and top with peanut butter. PB is great for slow releasing energy to keep you full all morning.

Studies so far have been fairly short term (3-12 weeks) and results show average weight loss of 4-8% over this period. Dinner: Stuffed peppers with couscous, courgette, and mozzarella keep your daily calorie count under 500 (243 cals) Lunch:You can’t beat a classic tomato soup, and Heinz’s Cream of Tomato Reduced Salt comes in at a light 115 calories. Calories so far = 280.

The 5:2 diet (and intermittent fasting in general) isn’t for everyone. Certain groups should avoid the 5:2 diet, including those who: