viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14349&hilit=cholesterol&start=3135#p264636

Essentially, it's based on a low cal diet that showed rats lived longer and had lower levels of IGF which mean that the body was in repair mode rather than grow mode. The diet I think was 800 kcals/day. A modified version involved eating 500kcals a day for two days a week, whilst a normal diet for the remaining 5 days (hence the 5:2, though perhaps it should be notated as 2:5). When I was doing it regularly, my stomach size shrank so I felt more full more quickly on my non-fasting days and hence ate less overall in a week than I did when I was on a 1500kcal/day limit.

Does it matter if the fast days are consecutive?

^^^IIRC, the fasts are supposed to be on non-consecutive days. I've done Mon and Weds as I'm at work all day and am usually too busy to notice. I would do Fridays as well but I normally have a treat meal on Friday.

I watched that Horizon program on fasting and they mentioned two and a half days total fasting but that only had to be done every few months.

That I haven't shaved in nearly two weeks and it's getting too scratchy

That was one regime, the 'two non consecutive days every week' was another one. The host/guinea pig found the former very difficult to tolerate while the latter one was more manageable.

Note that neither regime is actually about losing weight - they're designed to reduce the level of a certain hormone which is thought (but not proven) to be linked to the ageing process. Thus the name of the program - 'Eat, Fast and Live Longer'. which I can't decide whether it's a pun on the Lynne Truss book title or not. I suspect weight loss is possible with these regimes if your normal diet is not too bad anyway - for a normal person following the 5/2 regime you're taking roughly 3500 calories a week out of their diet, which is enough to lose roughly a pound a week in weight assuming the rest of the time you're not over-eating and get a reasonable amount of exercise.

The 5/2 regime is probably relatively safe to try in any case. The "don't eat anything at all for 48 hours" one could actually be dangerous if you were, for example, an undiagnosed diabetic.

Jon

How boring the next two weeks at work are going to be.

Paying off a loan. I bought my Golf GTI four years ago. Originally bought it on PCP as the plan was to change to the latest GTI every three years. Hated the look of the MK6 and loved my own car too much so settled for balloon payment. I didn't have the cash at the time so I took out a £10k loan. It's been 15 months and the loan has about £3k left. I have around £10k in savings (down from £20k before I paid towards my sister's wedding as well other necessary expenditure).

I will never buy a car on PCP again*. But should I just pay off the loan? Or should I wait until end of Jan, when I anticipate I will get a bonus (didn't take two weeks of annual leave and can't roll it over to next year) which would cover the remainder of the loan.


*All in all, I paid £25-26k for a £21k car. If I'd have gone via a loan from the start, I could have saved myself around £3k.

If you're paying interest on the loan (more than about 3%) then definitely pay off the loan if you can.

You will definitely be paying more interest on the loan than you are earning on savings.

I bought my car on PCP about 6 months ago. I'm now regretting it for a couple reasons. One is that I now rarely use the car. My old car was fine although getting old. In 2.5 years I have to make the same decision you did. Etc...

+1 though watch out for penalty payments for paying off early.

* multiple sirens *

And no, I'm not responsible

Are you sure?

I think it was him, hence why he doesnt show his face does pcernie throw molotovs?

Hold on, you mean PC Ernie isn't a member of the constabulary? I've been confused all this time..

I applied to join the Met but they said I was far too nice, and they needed someone they could trust