Warfarin and the 5:2 Diet

Before I begin, just a quick disclaimer to say that this is my personal experience with the 5:2 diet while taking Warfarin - I don't recommend it to anyone who is on it, and you should always consult your doctor before embarking on any kind of diet or eating regime!

I have a heart and lung condition (Eisenmenger's Syndrome) which makes me more likely to have blood clots. I had one 4 years ago when I was 21, and it caused me to have a ministroke. I am now on the anticoagulant Warfarin for the rest of my life.

As anyone on Warfarin will know, it's a bit of a pain. It interacts with all medicines, lifestyle changes, alcohol, and diets. Everything in moderation is what I was told - if you're going to drink alcohol then do, but make sure it's a small amount, and preferably the same every day, certainly don't ever binge; if you're going to diet then do, but don't do it suddenly and don't completely change your eating habits at once (one of my problems is I don't often listen to doctors....)

Well, I had my INR (I don't know what this stands for, but basically it has something to do with the target level of Warfarin!) tested after the first 2 fast days. My target is 2.5, but anywhere between 2-3 is acceptable. It was 2.4 - pretty near perfect.

I'm under the Royal Brompton Hospital for my health condition, and I spoke to them about the diet. I was advised that it probably isn't a good idea - it won't make me feel good, I'll be very tired and lacking in energy, I might upset my body by not eating much one day and then eating the wrong things the next, etc etc. They also don't know how it will affect my Warfarin. They said by all means I could carry on if I want to, but they wouldn't advise it.

I intend to get my INR checked next week, and will definitely be keeping an eye on it while on this diet. If it is having a negative affect on it then obviously I will rethink doing the 5:2 diet....but in the meantime I guess I'll carry on picking and choosing which bits of medical advice I listen to!

Sophie

The Third Weigh In...

Just a note to start this week, that I seem to have caught Melody's weighing-scales-obsession condition. I think I can quite safely say that I weighed about 8 times every single day - I found myself getting frustrated and upset when I didn't like the results, and I absolutely wrecked my feeding days by calculating calories in certain foods and concluding it totally wasn't worth eating them. I'm going to try this week to go back to doing a 2 day fast, and to eat normally on my feeding days...

Monday morning (first fast day, week 3)
11 stone 12 / 75.3kg
Not too bad, put on 2 pounds over the weekend.

Tuesday morning
11 stone 11 / 74.8kg
Lost a pound on the first fast day...

Wednesday morning (second fast day, week 3)

11 stone 11 / 74.8kg

Thursday morning 
11 stone 10 / 74.4kg
Another pound gone...

Saturday morning (third fast day, week 3)

11 stone 10 / 74.4kg

Sunday morning

11 stone 9 / 73.9kg
And another pound. But then I weighed this morning (monday) and was back to 11 stone 10. I find it so unbelievably annoying that after one feeding day, when I was very careful with food, I put another pound back on. I think I should stop weighing every day.

Sophie

The Anger Scale - Week 3

So just how Hangry were we in the third week of the fast..... 

Anger Scale After Three Fast Days

           
             Melody                    1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: Again my anger has regulated. Although I have been asleep for most of the week, even when I have had 13 hours sleep I still feel tired. The miserable weather could be the culprit.

           Sophie                   1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: This week I got very angry, especially on the second day of fasting. I was hoping to see better results as the first week or two I saw more progress with my weight, and the frustration was putting me in a bit of a strop! I went out for dinner on Saturday night (my third fast day) and felt rather grumpy eating my way through a portion of plain grilled haddock while everyone else had much tastier looking food and desserts to follow...

Week 3 - What we ate

This week we both decided to do three days - just to see how we would cope.

Here's what we have eaten this week...

Week 3 - First Fast Monday

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Pate on soda bread (200 cals)

Dinner - Half pizza express pizza (230 cals)

Snack - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Fail - Marshmallow (25 cals)TOTAL = 485 cals. Still need to eat better food...

Sophie

Breakfast - 1 Slice Wholemeal Toast & Pate (125 cals)

Lunch - 2 Small Poached Eggs on Wholemeal Toast (134 cals)
Dinner - Two Tuna Steaks & Steamed Veg (314 cals)

TOTAL = 573 cals. Went over by quite a lot, need to improve...

Week 3 - Second Fast Wednesday

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Pate on soda bread (200 cals)

Dinner - Lasagne (309 cals)

Fail - 2 marshamallows (50 cals)

TOTAL = 574 cals total - not so good.

Sophie

Breakfast - 2 Medium Poached Eggs on Wholemeal Toast (220 cals)

Lunch - Bag of Sweet Chilli Snack a Jacks (91 cals)

Dinner - 1 Cod Fillet & Steamed Veg (167 cals)

Fail - Advent Calendar Chocolate (20 cals)

TOTAL = 498 cals. Finally under the 500 calories!

Week 3 - Third Fast Friday - MM Saturday - SP

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Skipped lunch

Dinner - Gnocchi and chilli pesto (300 cals)

Snack - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Fail - ended up going out and having half a bottle of white wine (350 cals) two rum and diet cokes (150 cals) and half a kebab on the way home after 12am - (500 cals)

TOTAL = Before 12am - (680 cals) after 12am - (650 cals) - so not really a fast day...

Sophie

Breakfast - Banana (100 cals)

Lunch - 1 Small Cod Fillet & Steamed Carrot (140 cals)

Dinner - 1 Haddock Fillet (140 cals)

Fail - Advent Calendar Chocolate (20 cals), Caramel Snack a Jacks (102 cals)
TOTAL = 502 cals - Getting better at aiming for the 500

Anger Scale - Week 2

So just how Hangry were we in the second week of the fast..... 

Anger Scale After Two Fast Days

           
             Melody                    1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: I did not feel as angry this week. Moderately moody - but I had other things going on which could be responsible, my husband and I argued more so than normal - he is doing the diet too! Overall I feel very positive about this diet, which has made me consider doing a 4:3 version for a few weeks. I'll see how I go this week... watch this space.
 

           Sophie                   1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: Not sure if angry is the right word, more irritable and tetchy, snapping at everyone around (sorry everyone). I found this week to be a lot harder than the first week. I felt dizzy, sick, and couldn't concentrate on Tuesday from hunger as I didn't eat lunch, and Thursday was by far the hardest in terms of just wanting to stop calorie counting and start eating. The thought of my sausage sandwich for breakfast on Friday morning kept me going! 

Week 2 - What we ate

We've made it through the two fast days of week 2!

Here's what we have eaten this week...

Week 2 - First Fast Tuesday 

Melody 

Breakfast - Mini milk Choc eggs (30 cals)
Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Wholewheat couscous with pepper, carrot, lettuce, cucumber and feta (226 cals)
Diet cola (1 cal)

Dinner - Plain Mc Donalds Cheeseburger* (3/4 eaten - 210 cals)
Diet cola (1 cal)

Snack - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

TOTAL = 498 On track, but let's be honest I need to just eat healthier.

* The cheeseburger is because we ended up going out for the evening so couldn't eat our planned healthy dinner of fish and steamed veg.

Sophie

Breakfast - 1 Slice Wholemeal Toast & Pate (125 cals)

Lunch - None (This was a big mistake, cue feeling like death for the rest of the day and having to leave work early....)

Dinner - Two Tuna Steaks & Steamed Veg (328 cals)


Fail - 1 Thorntons Mini Caramel Shortcake (40 cals)
  TOTAL = 524 cals. Not bad, but a lesson learnt that I am not built to last all day on no lunch!



Week 2 - Second Fast Thursday 

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee and semi-skimmed milk (15 cals)

Lunch - (See epic FAIL) & soda bread and pate (110) & Vanilla Shortbread Biscuit (65 cals)

Dinner - Wholewheat pasta with a spicy tomato sauce and small cheese portion (250)

Fail - 2 Liqourice allsorts, 2 marshamallows and mini wham (110 cals)

TOTAL = 550 cals total - worse than the day I ate a cheeseburger.

Sophie

Breakfast - 1 Slice Wholemeal Toast & Pate (125 cals)

Lunch - 2 Small Poached Eggs on Wholemeal Toast (134 cals)

Dinner - 1 Salmon Fillet & Steamed Veg (253 cals)

Fail - Breakfast Biscuit mid-afternoon (56 cals)

TOTAL = 568 cals. Bit over, but worth it to not feel as bad as on Tuesday!

The Second Weigh-In...

I last weighed on Saturday morning of week 1, so by the time Tuesday morning of week 2 came round, I wasn't hopeful that I would be anything like 11 stone 13 still. I was wrong....

Tuesday morning (the morning of the first fast day, week 2)
11 stone 13 / 75.8kg
Excellent - despite eating normally over the 4 consecutive feeding days, I'd managed to not put the weight back on!

Wednesday morning

11 stone 11 / 74.8kg
Lost another 2 pounds!

Friday morning (the morning after the second fast day, week 2)

11 stone 10 / 74.4kg
This means that I've lost 7 pounds in total, half a stone after 4 fast days!

I am still struggling to see how this diet will work long term, and whether the weight will stay off, but at the moment I think it's amazing! I feel slimmer, and I'm enjoying the fact that I can have a sausage sandwich in the morning, or go out for dinner, and not have to feel guilty that I've messed up my diet.

Sophie

Must have APP for all 5:2 followers

My Fitness Pal

Great app which makes counting calories easy...

go here and join up for free - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/ then simply download the app onto your smart phone..

Melody and Sophie

Why I don't weigh myself..

In the past I have suffered from a condition I would call "weighing scale - obsession". This condition resulted in my husband taking a hammer to the house scales in frustration once I announced I weighed myself 4 times a day. I would even weigh myself after I had been to the toilet.

I now have no idea how much I weigh, although at a guess I would say a touch over 10 stone 7 pounds (possible 10.9) - therefore unlike Sophie I cannot update my actual progress. My alternative is to measure my waist which I am planning to do this evening....

I am finding this whole diet very easy, although I am struggling with the fact I am not seeing results like Sophie - I can only hope the diet is having the same effect. Only time will tell. If I am honest today I feel bigger but that could just be down to feeling a bit bloated...

I am excited at the prospect of losing the weight I know I have put on. Before my wedding this year in April I know I was a comfortable size 10, I have let this creep up to a 12-14. I am naturally an apple shape - all my weight goes on my tummy (and face), therefore it is paramount I lose the extra tyre for health reasons too.

Melody

Week 2 begins....

Tuesday 27th November, the first diet day of the second week, came round very quickly after 4 days of eating normally. My sceptical side has been put to rest after the morning weigh in - still 11 stone 13 / 75.8kg, and that's after a pub trip with a LOT of alcohol, a takeaway burger, copious amounts of chocolate, etc. Can't believe how well it worked!

So after another day of fasting yesterday, I got on the scales this morning with some anticipation....

11 stone 11 / 74.8 kg - another 2lbs gone bringing my total weight loss to 6lbs in 8 days. Which equates to 2lbs every fasting day so far.

A healthy BMI (Body Mass Index) is between 18.5 and 25. I did my BMI at the beginning of the diet, back at 12 st 3, and it was 25.25 - falling into the overweight category. As of today, my BMI is 24.34 - made it to the healthy category!

Sophie

The Weigh-in...

So while I very much don't want to be sharing my weight on here, I suppose it somewhat defeats the object of the diet if there's no figures to show our findings... Please keep in mind that I am 5 foot 9 with size 9 feet!

Tuesday morning (the morning of the first fast day)

12 stone 3 / 77.6kg

Wednesday morning

12 stone 1 / 76.7kg

Friday morning (the morning after the second fast day)

11 stone 13 / 75.8kg

Saturday morning

This morning will be the last time I weigh before the next fasting day. I was still 11 stone 13, which I think is pretty good as I was out for Pizza Hut last night and had a cookie dough, yum!

I'm feeling a little sceptical by what the chances are of the weight not going right back up in the next few days, but we will see! Losing 4 pounds / nearly 2kgs in the space of 2 fast days seems like a pretty good start! Also very promising that on the morning after a fast day, both of us found we weren't feeling at all hungry and neither of us needed to eat as much as we normally do.

Sophie

Stolen from Wikipedia

The diet

The diet involves very low calorie restriction for two days a week and allows normal eating for the other five days.^[1] Although the number of calories consumed on the two days a week is restricted it is up to the particular dieter how they divide it throughout the day, men can consume 600 calories and women 500 calories.^[2] A typical fasting day may be a breakfast of 300 calories such as two scrambled eggs with ham, water, green tea or black coffee and a lunch or dinner of grilled fish or meat with vegetables amounting to 300 calories.^[1] The Daily Mail said of the diet, "Gorging yourself on as many burgers, chips and cakes as you like one day then eating fewer calories than you find in a cheese sandwich the next might sound like a worrying eating disorder. But this regime of chomping away to your heart’s content one day, and virtually starving yourself the next is the latest diet craze. It’s known as ‘intermittent fasting’ or ‘alternate-day dieting’,and devotees insist the pounds just drop off."^[3]

[edit]Research

Studies conducted by the Baltimore National Institute on Aging reveal that fasting once or twice a week lowers IGF-1 levels, which encourages fat burning, and can protect the brain against diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.^[2] Test conducted on mice have revealed that controlling the levels of IGF-1 through fasting can promote longevity; high levels of IGF -1 in later life promote ageing, although is needed in youth for growth.^[1] However, the general medical consensus is that fasting has not been researched extensively enough to conclude its benefits.^[1] Villagers in Ecuador suffering from the extremely rare Laron syndrome in which they can't produce IGF-1 have showed an immunity to diseases such as cancer and diabetes and exceptional longevity.^[1] But they exhibit extremely short stature and typically stand less than 4ft, due to them being restricted the hormone in their childhood development.^[1]

Continue Reading here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5:2_diet

Anger Scale - Week 1

One of the things discussed previously is that fasting can cause irritability and moodiness or 'HANGER' (hungry/anger). We will complete the following Anger Scale once a week after both Fast Days to show the mental/psychological effects of the diet. 

Anger Scale After Two Fast Days

           Melody                    1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: I have been angry, more so than Sophie - I have found it's best when I am on my own, when dealing with people directly I am short tempered and aggressive. I find I have sworn more than usual - Kirsty Alsopp offends me, I found the Vintage Homes program especially annoying this evening .  

           Sophie                   1        2       3        4        5        6        7        8         9        10

Notes: I have found that I am more grumpy as a person anyway compared to Melody so it's been harder to detect the effect, if any. I feel tired, looking forward to tomorrow and eating some ordinary portions. My wee smells from the asparagus. 

First two Fast Days..What we ate.

Sophie and I are already through our two fast days for the week. Meaning we have four consecutive feed days, yey!

What we have eaten this week...

First Fast Tuesday 

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee with a little milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Wholewheat Pasta and Chilli Pesto (279 cals) & Coffee and milk (15 cals)

Dinner - Soda Bread Toast and Pate (100 cals)

Snack - Apple (70 cals) 

Fail - Two marshmallow - whoops (50 cals) / Stars Jelly (35 cals)

TOTAL = 564 cals Not great but it was my first day!

Sophie

Breakfast - None

Lunch - Two small Poached Eggs & 1 Slice crustless Bread (270 cals)

Dinner - Small Chicken Fillet & Steamed Veg (240 cals)

Drinks - Two Blackcurrant Squash (18 cals)

TOTAL = 528 cals That's more like it!

Second Fast Thursday 

Melody 

Breakfast - Coffee with a little milk (15 cals)

Lunch - Wholewheat Wrap, Wholewheat Couscous Salad and Yoghurt (245 cals) & Coffee with a little milk (15 cals)

Dinner - Half a Pea and Bacon Risotto (270 cals)

Fail - One marshmallow (25 cals) / Stars Jelly (20 cals - 1/2 eaten)

TOTAL = 590 Worse!

Sophie

Breakfast - 1 Slice Wholemeal Toast & Pate (125 cals) & Pear (46 cals)

Lunch - 11 Steamed Asparagus Spears (55 cals)

Dinner - Half a Pea and Bacon Risotto (270 cals)

Fail - One marshmallow (25 cals) / Stars Jelly (35 cals)

TOTAL = 556 cals 

This is us.



SOPHIE 

MELODY 

This is us. We work together in an Architects office in Wimbledon.

We are always discussing eating, weight, calories, healthy food, naughty food.

Today we decided to venture on a trip together.. THE 5:2 DIET. Having extensively searched the internet for some information we decided that there just wasn't enough, so we have created this brilliant blog! In the hope that writing about our experience will motivate us to stick with it and others to comment and get involved.

We will update weekly on our progress with pictures and information.

5:2 Diet Rules

1) For 5 days of the week we will eat normally.

2) For 2 days we will eat 500 calories.

3) Drink lots of water.

4) Not get angry or abusive towards each other - or the general public.

5) Take Nurofen to battle headaches.