Rules for my 5:2 Eating plan

Published 7.10.2024; reformatted 8.22.2026: Since I've decided to do a 5:2 eating plan with the goal of losing roughly fifteen pounds, it would seem to be a good idea to establish the rules that I will follow going forward. I should also mention that I have started walking again, I received a walking pad for Mother's Day and I purchased a standing desk to go with it. My daily goal is to achieve 10,000 steps (and yes, I know that the number is completely arbitrary).

The walking goal was established before I began to consider the 5:2, therefore it remains, even if the 5:2 fails. I have been working my way up to walking 10,000 steps per day because it's been about a decade since I walked while I worked at my computer. What's that you ask? Didn't I continue my offline gluten free bakery? Why, yes I did, thank you for asking. However, I now share a kitchen space, and spend most of the day either in the car visiting would be customers or in front of my computer. When I'm in front of my computer, unless I need to type a lot or due a lot of "mouse" work, I want to be on the walking pad walking. Particularly if I'm reading or watching a video I want to be walking, at least until I reach 10,000 steps.

So the rules fo the 5:2 are not difficult, basically for two days a week you eat only 800 calories, you eat your regular diet the other 5 days. My rules really have to do with how I intend to arrange my eating pattern on the 800 calorie day. My husband is not participating, and frankly, I'd rather not have the conversation as to why I'm doing it if he's not. To be fair to him, I didn't ask him if he wanted to do the 5:2, this is my thing. For all I know he'd humor me as he did the last time, but for now, I'm doing it alone.

As I noted in the previous piece, my plan was simply to skip lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays (the days I don't do to the gym during the week). Weekends are untouched, because doing anything then is stupid and would disrupt any trip we'd have planned. I'll eat my regular breakfast, which is about 300 calories. Then I'll eat a light dinner and call it a day. I'm not going to fuss and count calories precisely— that would require weighing things out, and as I said, I don't do the cooking any more. I still remember the calorie lessons I gave my self way back in 2008 (I think) — I know how to estimate calories. It's not that I don't know that I'm eating too many calories, it's that I don't do anything about it.

On Tuesdays (and the 9th was a Tuesday so I skipped lunch for the first time that day), I make questions for a local pub's trivia night, and in payment dinner is there on those days. I will need to be careful about calories that I eat, and in the event that I have a sandwich, probably bring half of it home to have on Wednesdays. I've already started doing that, plus I've been working to decrease the amount of alcohol that I drink there (I am alone in this too). So particularly in skipping lunch, I think it will be okay, even if I'm eating out. But it IS why i'm not fussing about the absolute calories I achieve for the day. The goal is 800, and I am skipping the calories at lunch and any between meal snacking. That will have to suffice as a deficit.

I don't know that there's anything magical about 800 calories— though it is the amount that Roy Taylor's treatment for type 2 diabetes uses, and I know that Michael Mosley (who created the 5:2) spoke with him a number of times. There are a lot of fasting regimes… including those that actually fast, which would mean not eating anything all day. Such plans never appealed to me, thus I have never fasted, save for some medical procedure that required it.

I suppose at some point I should go over the recipe for the "pudding" I make for myself for breakfast. I won't do that here, but it includes calcium sulfate set silken tofu, sprouted oats, and ground seeds of various types. My point in developing it was to maximize the calcium in the pudding. The tofu is the largest source, but the seeds add a bit of calcium too, as do the oats. More recently I've added a tablespoon of cocoa powder, and for that I can thank my daughter. It does have a small amount of calcium, but mostly it's just chocolate flavor. As I like to say, "You can hide a lot of sins with chocolate…"

So on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will eat breakfast, and then not eat again until dinner. I did it on July 9th and it wasn't an issue— in terms of my being overly hungry during the day. I ate a good amount of protein at dinner (more than I would have because there was no bun to go with it— long story, don't ask.) so I think I'll be fine tomorrow at the gym. We'll see how it goes on Thursday.

Did I eat (and drink) only 500 calories at the pub? I don't know. I think it was probably between 500-600. Whatever the actual number was, I'm not stressing or fussing over it. It is what it is, and I didn't have anything to eat between breakfast and the pub. No matter what I am "ahead" of the game in that way.

So that's the plan of the "rules". Have my prescribed calorie defined breakfast, then don't eat until dinner and eat a lighter dinner. Don't stress about the total number of calories, just do your best to stay at about 800. Also keep walking as planned. I need a bit more steady state cardio in my life. We'll see how it goes. I know roughly what I weigh here at the beginning, I think I'll give it a month then step on the scale again.