Getting summer ready with The Fast Beach diet

[CatherineHMumsnet]

To tie in with the publication of The Fast Beach Diet - a superfast programme to get you feeling confident and summer-ready, we'll be launching our own six week Fast Beach Diet programme in the run up to the school summer holidays.


The Fast Beach diet aims to shake up your routine and change how you think about food and exercise. The health benefits of the Fast Diet, as explained by Dr Michael Mosley in our webchat can range from "improved insulin sensitivity, reduced inflammatory markers (leading to reduced risk of cancer and possibly improvements in asthma) and possibly reduced risk of dementia". We've created some tasty meal plans to help you get used to this new way of eating (as well as being great inspiration for delicious summer food).

The programme also includes a regimen of High Intensity Training (HIT), which is a great way to introduce quick and easy regular exercise into your lifestyle.

Starting from next week, we'll have tips, tricks, recipes and mealplanners to help you along. And the book's author, Mimi Spencer, will be popping in over the programme to answer any questions and bully cajole you into sticking with it.

If you're up for taking part - let us know on this thread.

[TalkinPeace]

BAD CALL MUMSNET.
Too much cashing in by Mimi

The whole point of 5:2 is that it is NOT about rapid weight loss for a holiday.
That way Yo-yo and failure lie.

5:2 works because it is slow and steady and teaches you that the old "normal" was wrong and the new normal involves eating less and healthily for the rest of your life

not just a crappy holiday starve.

[fairypangolin]

I agree with TiP! The one caution with 5:2 is that some people with ED tendencies can use it to justify bingeing and starving, which is very unhealthy and unsustainable long term. Pushing it as a method of fast crash weight loss only encourages this misuse. The whole idea of creating a "beach body" is misguided as it encourages women to pursue an unrealistic ideal and then to label themselves as failures when it doesn't work.

Very un-mumsnet in my view!

[ThaneOfScunthorpe]

Something like 95% of people who crash diet end up heavier than before they started. And this is a crash diet.

I also thought 'yeuch' at the 'beach body'.

[BigChocFrenzy]

BAD idea Mumsnet

Please reconsider

5:2 is a healthy sustainable WOL.
Mimi's "cash for crash diet" does NOT belong in our 5:2 corner.

Crash diets can be dangerous

. The body is overstressed and the endocrine system / metabolism may be damaged
. Too much of the lost weight is muscle, which is replaced by fat
. This is yo-yo dieting
. Such diets are a magnet to people with EDs

Oh and "beach body" - Really, Mumsnet ?

[BetsyBell]

No thank you MNHQ. Not what 5:2 is about at all. We are about making changes for life for HEALTH, not for a damn 'beach ready body'. Ugh. Take it to the women-hating Daily Fail please, they'll love it.

[Southeastdweller]

I'm reading this at the moment. Both Mimi and Dr M say in the book that this should be done in adjunct to the original Fast Diet. Also, Mimi clearly says early on that the top goal is health, not weight loss which she advises shouldn't be very quick - 2 lbs a week is what she says should be the average for each of the six weeks. This approach is a boot camp for 5:2, she says, not a separate thing.

I hope that MN will edit their OP to give a more informed view of what the book is about, though I must add that I've only read three chapters so far.

I'll post more when I finish the book next week.

[TalkinPeace]

Southeast well done you for checking it out. Very much look forward to your reasoned opinion.

[BigChocFrenzy]

Thx SouthEast That's more reassuring. The couple of reviews I saw referred to speeding up 5:2, which did alarm me.

I still think Mimi cashes in far too much tho !

[KateSMumsnet]

@Southeastdweller

I'm reading this at the moment. Both Mimi and Dr M say in the book that this should be done in adjunct to the original Fast Diet. Also, Mimi clearly says early on that the top goal is health, not weight loss which she advises shouldn't be very quick - 2 lbs a week is what she says should be the average for each of the six weeks. This approach is a boot camp for 5:2, she says, not a separate thing.

I hope that MN will edit their OP to give a more informed view of what the book is about, though I must add that I've only read three chapters so far.

I'll post more when I finish the book next week.

Thanks for raising this Southeastdweller - it's a good point! We've now edited the OP to give a bit more detail about how the Fast Diet works, and what the benefits are.

[NeverEndingLaundry]

I am absolutely not prioritising a 'beach body' (jeez! If I go to a beach I'll take the one I already live in, thanks, and I'll expect people to be polite enough not to sneer and point) but I'm keen to stay healthy and lose some weight, and if I can get enough encouragement to actually stick to 5:2 or 4:3 for 6 weeks I'll be chuffed, so count me in.

I've tried and given up with 5:2 a few times so cajole away. Thank you.

I have just read the book and completed one fast day. Pleasingly, one whole tub of Sainsbo's Lentil Dhal soup = 504cals. Although I'm a keen cook I chose this today and took my DCs to a café as couldn't face the temptation of dealing with food in too much intimacy.

[NeverEndingLaundry]

Do I have BO?

[BetsyBell]

Come and see us on the main thread neverending! Currently number 45.