Our fast 800 journey

Hit subscribe at the top of the page to follow our journey! Our first  fast 800  dinner was surprisingly good, if a little long awaited as we had eaten nothing since our breakfast/lunch that afternoon. We ate later than we should have, towards 9pm. It is recommended that you should eat your last meal at least three hours before going to bed. According to Dr Michael Mosley, your body does not like to be forced back into action just before you hit the pillow. He backs this theory up with research in his book . On this note, we will aim for earlier meal times going forward. So what did we cook? Firstly, note the word 'cook' here. When we embarked upon the old 5:2 diet a year earlier, we relied heavily upon M&S Balanced For You ready meals which, in fairness, did offer a reasonable variety, were rather tasty and an overall very easy option. This time, we want to be making the food ourselves, from scratch, as much as possible. I think this will give us a greater apprecia...

Hit subscribe at the top of the page to follow our journey! Our final meal before beginning  the fast 800  was, admittedly, a naughty one. It was time for our belated pancake day. With toppings of Nutella and blackcurrant jam (my favourite), this was one sugary high to end our times of carb fuelled, processed foods.  As well as measuring our various body dimensions, we also tried out our new blood sugar testing kit .  In the morning, before eating, our blood sugar levels were well within the normal range (4.5   mmol/L  f or me, 4.9 mmol/L  for Ross). Whilst I did not particularly enjoy getting my finger pricked for the purpose of this, it is certainly information that most of the population would never normally be looking at. It all began to feel rather more scientific and measurable compared to anything we had ever done before. We also both used a Ketone urine test strip  to confirm that neither of us were in ketosis.   (This is where...

Hit subscribe at the top of the page to follow our journey! So you may well have heard of the 5:2 diet – if you haven’t, it now features as number one on the NHS page of ‘ Top Diets .’ Interesting, when any talk around fasting usually attracts a raised eyebrow and a comment like “Oh, but I could never do that.” Having watched Dr Michael Mosley’s  Eat, Fast and Live Longer   on BBC’s Horizon, we fasted on alternate days for two months and then dropped down to fasting for two days per week for several months more. Fasting days meant a calorie restriction of 500 calories per day for me, and 600 for my partner, Ross. Ross lost around 7kg, I lost around 4kg, despite being able to eat whatever we wanted on non fasting days. And then, we stopped. Why? Well, I started a new job and fasting no longer felt practical and Ross just kind of let the plan slip away too.  Last week, we got wind of a new book by Dr Michael Mosley,  the fast 800,  and reading this...