On the programme Michael Moseley followed the 5 days eating 2 days restricted calorie diet (eating 600 calories per day). over a period of, I think, 3 months he managed to lose1 stone in weight but also dramatically reduced his body fat ratio. He didn't alter his behaviour at all on the 5 normal days. Pretty impressive. His example of what he ate on his low calorie days was - scrambled eggs for breakfast, no lunch and something like fish or chicken with loads of veg for dinner. Does sound sticable to - terrible English but you know what I mean.
This was a perfectly timed programme for me since I’ve been looking in to intermittent fasting for the past 3 weeks. I’ve embarked on the 5-2 method and find it very doable. If there are those of you who didn’t see the programme you can see it on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfna7nV7WaM&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I watched the programme and found it interesting.
I have done the odd day fasting for years,I found that my body starts to tell me that I need to stop eating for a day only, and then I seem to get my energy levels back.
3 days I'm not sure but personally I think there are more benefits than-not to give your body a natural way to detox itself, but as lots of others have said you must keep up the water intake.
My husband is 52 a keen cyclist (triathlete up till last year when a back problem kicked the running out) and swimmer. We met training for triathlons 17 years ago. Ever since I have known him he has always fasted on a Friday. Never caused any health problems for him so far. More to the contrary. It's a personal thing I think James and definitely get your health checked by a doctor first. Listen to your body (not necessarily the hunger pangs), it always knows what to do. Best of luck :)
Glen has hit the nail on the head - as an active builder he needs several thousand calories a day. As a keen cyclist I know Tour de France riders need 7000 to 9000 calories a day and Sir Chris Hoy who you will all have seen at the Olympics eats 5 meals a day.
If I missed breakfast I would feel ill and lethargic by lunchtime.
My recomendationis breakfast with Muesli/fruit & yoghurt, a banana mid morning, lunch aroun 1.00pm and a light evening meal. On those days when we eat out in the evening it seems to take for ever to digest & I have a poor night`s sleep.
No one has mentioned cutting down on the alcohol - lots of calories there!
The biology behind this makes sense. If you think of how we've evolved, we would often go days without eating. I think I'll try this once I'm back from vacation. My problem is I tend to eat more when I'm bored or away from home, and I'll be traveling a lot this fall :( I guess I'll go for more walks.....
I started 3 day fasts when I was 15, having read up about various health diets....Ive always felt 100% better after fasting...and funnily, the food I always crave when I finish the fast is ice cold fruit...out of the coolbox, oranges, grapefruit, apples....everyone, including my GP husband used to say it wasnt healthy....but I knew that anything that made you feel that good couldnt be bad for you...so happy to have been proved right...I decided to start doing it again having watched the Horizon prog...good luck James...am sure you will feel the benefits!
I also 100% agree with Gretchen, find the fast that fits 
http://www.jaduncan.com/2006/04/how-i-lost-stone-in-week.html also worked for me. Even one day of this will lose you weight. I didn’t lose a stone, but about 5kgs in two weeks. Everyone has their own opinion, but this worked for me,and there is a supportive community around this diet, where you have an online buddy. Best wishes again. KK
Good on yer James
We saw the documentary too and read Mark's Daily Apple where he extols the virtues of intermittent fasting. The documentary was very convincing (here's a link to my blog on the subject) and inspired us to try it too but nothing crazy. I just stick to 500 calories for the day by having a light breakfast and evening meal and Ron doesn't eat anything until teatime where he has his 600 calories. It works for us - you don't get as hungry as you'd think - just focus on protein and veg rather than carbs and need to keep busy to take your mind off it. We are trying random fasts once or twice a week when we are not going to be too physically active.
We're doing it for the health benefits rather than weight loss so it'll be interesting to see if we get any skinnier. The interesting thing is that you don't overeat on normal days - you're much more aware of the empty and excessive calories you're putting into your body. It's amazing how much it saves on food bills too. It has also got to be so much better for the environment.....win/win all round.
The way Michael in the documentary did it eventually, was to have a large breakfast so he could get going for the day on the days he did eat and burn it up during the day, and then less for the other two meals. He said he found it particularly difficult going to work on the fasting days when he hadn't had breakfast.
Well so far the best benefit for me is that he is not constantly demanding to be fed :)
Thanks Kwashie, that's what I'm hoping for!
Gordon, I suppose on this regime one would have to miss breakfast or dinner on the fasting days, are you suggesting dinner would be a better option to miss out?
Funny you should mention this. I am on a fast at the moment which involves eating as late as possible in the day and only one protein based meal. It works wonders. Everyone has their point of view, but, if like me you already have a super healthy diet, the only way to lose weight fast is by fasting. Muscle can be built up later. Exercise is not a panacea, food intake is the most important thing in weight loss. So my advice is fast away and drink only what you need. The pounds will melt away. Good luck
I watched this programme yesterday as I had recorded it previously - Michael Mosley in America - who finished up with doing five days eating and two days fasting. His results were certainly impressive. Not sure that I have the self-discipline to do that and not sure I can with my mini gastric bypass which likes a regular routine diet to behave best. Years ago I had a boyfriend who only had liquid on a Tuesday and ate normally the rest of the time. Certainly, his body, as I remember it - those were the days when I had a naked man around - had no spare fat and he was a healthy chap.
Big mistake to miss breakfast - it gets your metabolism going so you burn fat when exercising. If you stop eating your body eats itself & so you lose muscle first - fat second.
Missing breakfast tempts you to snack mid morning on something like a sugary biscuit for that instant energy hit.
Here's the deep link to various metods on the site Elise posted http://www.marksdailyapple.com/why-fast-part-six-choosing-a-method/#axzz23QF6YuCY
Gretchen, my intention is to lose weight and become healthier. If it works by fasting for 24 hours at a time that effectively means just missing out on two meals a day, which sounds doable as I don't eat breakfast anyway. I have made a note of my weight and body fat today and I'll check again in a week and post the results.
Fasting for 1 day per week may be a good idea occaisionally but I would have thought 3 to 4 days in succession would be bad for one`s health. Even fasting for 1 day would in my opinion be bad if you were carrying out any type of physical work or activity.
Better to have a day eating very light meals and drinking lots of water - drinking lots of water every day is a good idea to keep everything working!