So What's The Intermittent Fasting Diet?

What this article covers

An explainer on the 5:2 style of intermittent fasting, published 3 September 2019 with the byline Kate Save. It defines the pattern - normal eating five days a week, two non-consecutive fasting days at 500-600 calories - and argues that intermittent fasting is a legitimate alternative to daily energy restriction, particularly for people who cannot sustain a continuous diet. Note a naming inconsistency across the page: the URL is so-whats-the-5-2-diet and the meta description still opens 'The 5:2 Diet is...', while the visible heading and body have been rewritten to say 'Intermittent Fasting Diet'. Same article, two names.

Key points

• Structure: five days of normal eating, two fasting days per week.
• Fasting days are 500-600 calories, stated as roughly 25% of average daily metabolic requirements.
• Claim: intermittent fasting is as effective for weight loss as a daily reduced-energy diet, and useful for weight maintenance.
• A CSIRO 16-week clinical study is reported to have found effective weight loss plus improvements in cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure, and better self-reported eating control.
• Reviews are cited for reductions in total body weight, body fat percentage and waist circumference.
• Further claims: decreases in metabolic biomarkers such as insulin and glucose; improved lipid profiles including reduced cholesterol and triglycerides; possible appetite reduction.
• Adherence argument: two days of attention per week is easier for some people to sustain than daily restriction, and the pattern may build awareness of hunger and fullness cues.
• Positioning: suited to slower weight loss or maintenance, not rapid loss.

Evidence and sourcing

Six references are listed, though the citation apparatus has defects worth knowing about. First, and most serious: the sentence 'The CSIRO undertook a 16-week clinical study' carries marker (2), and reference 2 is Tinsley GM, La Bounty PM, Effects of intermittent fasting on body composition and clinical health markers in humans, Nutr Rev 2015;73(10):661-674 - a US narrative review, not a CSIRO trial. The CSIRO study is not in the reference list at all, so the marker points at the wrong reference and the study a reader would most want to check is uncitable from this page. Second, the article mixes two citation systems: numbered markers (1) and (2) in the early paragraphs, then bare author-name markers (Patterson, Tinsley, Seimon, Harvie, Harvie #2, Brown) later, with 'Harvie #2' rendered once as 'Harvey #2' - a misspelling that breaks the mapping. Third, the marker (DAA), used for the mindful-eating claim, has no matching entry in the reference list; the acronym is never expanded. Fourth, reference 5 (Harvie M, Howell A, Behav Sci 2017;7(1)) is by its own title 'a narrative review of human and animal evidence', yet it is used alongside the others to support human outcomes for body weight and metabolic biomarkers - an animal-inclusive source doing work for human claims, and it carries no page range. The closing paragraph's summary claims - decreased blood pressure, improved cardiovascular risk markers - carry no marker at all. Page ranges elsewhere are distinct, with no duplication between papers. Worth noting: reference 6 lists M Mosley as an author, the same Michael Mosley whose work underpins Be Fit Food's Be Maintenance program.

How this relates to Be Fit Food's programs

This is the closest match in the blog to an actual Be Fit Food product. The Intermittent Fasting Program runs 4 weeks on exactly the pattern described: 5 days of healthy eating and 2 fasting days at 500-600 calories. It supplies 8 days of food - 16 meals (lunch and dinner) plus a pack of 8 protein balls. Be Maintenance is the related 4-week program, with 24 meals and 14 snacks and two low-calorie days a week at about 800 calories (60-70g protein, 50-70g carbohydrate), and is explicitly based on Dr Michael Mosley's 'The Fast 800' and 'The New 5:2 Diet'. For people wanting faster loss instead, Be Rapid (about 800-900 calories daily) and Metabolism Reset (about 850-950 calories, 40-70g carbohydrate, over 7, 14 or 28 days) are the very low calorie options. The article's own call to action - contacting a Be Fit Food Accredited Practising Dietitian - maps to the free 15-minute telehealth consultation, valued at $49, with no referral required.

Important health information

Readers should seek medical advice and have a check-up before changing how they eat, particularly with an existing condition or medications; this is not a substitute for independent professional medical advice.