I've been dipping in and out of the 5:2 diet for about four years. It seems to be the only diet that I can stick to without me having to give up that foodie life.
The 5:2 diet is pretty simple; for two days of the week you must fast and only consume 500 calories. For the remaining five days of the week you can eat ‘normally’. For me, ‘normally’ means up to 2000 calories a day. However, what I tend to do is save some extra calories for the weekend when I know I'll want to binge/eat out.
My typical week looks like this: Mon:500, Tues:1200, Wed:1200, Thurs:500, Fri:2500, Sat:2500, Sun:2500. This gives me an average of 1557 calories a day. I also (try to) go to the gym three times a week doing a mixture of cardio and weight training—I particularly like spin and body pump classes.
My latest 5:2 stint started 12th March and so far I'm five pounds down. I actually lost half a stone in my first two weeks then gained four pounds over the Easter weekend! Whoops.
If you're looking to start the 5:2 diet, I recommend downloading the My Fitness Pal app. It's really easy to search/scan food items in order to track your calories. My fast day today consisted of the following:
Breakfast
2x Kallo dark chocolate rice cakes and a black tea (110 calories)
Lunch
Itsu miso soup, a Granny Smith apple and a can of Coca-Cola Zero (125 calories)
Dinner
Slice of toast with a smidgen of butter and two scrambled eggs (265 calories)
Dessert
Hartley's sugar free apple jelly (7 calories)
TOTAL= 507 CALORIES (I'm not gonna worry about the jelly that tipped me over the edge).
