8 Hour VS 5:2 Diet - Let The Hunger Games Begin!

   VS

A few posts ago I reviewed the 8 Hour Diet and at the end called for guinea pigs that would want to try it out. Jo, a friend I hadn't caught up with in years (literally, we worked out it was about 4 years... very sad) facebooked me and put her hand up.  Full points for being brave, if not smart :D

I was then chatting with another friend over dinner and she mentioned that since I had looked at the 8 Hour Diet, I really ought to also look at the 5:2 Diet, the other (more) popular form of intermittent fasting.

5:2 Diet you say?

Why yes!

I jumped on line and did a bit of research, and the research interested me. While I will go into the diet in more details later, as the name suggests the basic formula is eat whatever you want 5 days a week and then have a very restricted diet 2 days a week (so not even real fasting!).

How restricted you ask? 25% of your required daily intake, which is roughly around 500 calories for girls and 600 calories for boys. Just to put that in perspective, an Australian MacDonald's Big Mac burger is 515 calories, without the chips or drinks (Yes, the number of calories does actually change country to country... more in Singapore, would you believe?). However, you would be amazed how much food you can squeeze into 500 calories if you really try.

So I posed to Jo the concept of a challenge - her on the 8 Hour Diet and me on the 5:2 Diet. Minimum two weeks: which was easier to live with and produced good results.

Sadly, can't directly compare them against each other in weight loss terms, as I'm still trying to train for my half marathon (yes, I haven't posted, but I'm still, sort of, with slightly guilty tones, training), and the other general personal differences between us. Also, I happened to start on Wednesday last week while Jo couldn't start until Saturday. As I didn't know this until I had already started fasting, I wasn't going to give up the hard work I had done already. But I'm sure you will forgive me.

But we will tell you all the gory details and leave you to decide. 

So, in the next post I'm going to outline for you the 5:2 Diet and why I think it's going to be the more practical and sustainable of the two. 

Then, at the end of each week Jo and I are both going to report in with how things have been going, any weight loss, and advice to those trying to follow in our paths.

The Hunger Games have begun... stay tuned for more!

Check out Jo's first check-in: 8 Hour Diet 8th Day Wrap!