• Home
  • Melanie Brown
    • Female Fertility
    • Male Fertility
    • Pregnancy
  • Recipes
    • Recommended Experts
    • About Anna
    • About Kate
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Your Consultation & FAQs
  • Contact & Rates
Menu

Melanie Brown Nutrition

3-5 Duke Street
London, England, W1U 3ED
(44) 7968 369 076

Your Custom Text Here

Melanie Brown Nutrition

  • Home
  • Melanie Brown
  • Fertility
    • Female Fertility
    • Male Fertility
    • Pregnancy
  • Recipes
  • Recommended Experts
    • Recommended Experts
    • About Anna
    • About Kate
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Your Consultation & FAQs
  • Contact & Rates

5:2 Diet up-date

April 10, 2013 Melanie Brown
Melanie-Brown-Nutrition-5-2-Diet-up-date-2.jpg

I think we have finally cracked it at last. If you can stick with the 5:2 diet, and try out different things I think it should work for almost everyone. Husband is now the weight and fitness level he was when he was 15 (so he says….) and best of all a client who had multiple failed IVFs and needed to lose weight before another one was attempted just did it, lost the weight, looks fabulous and is pregnant at last. And after hearing more anti-aging validation on Radio 4’s The Food Programme, I am filled with renewed enthusiasm!

My friend said she wouldn’t be able to do it as skipping meals was meant to be bad for you wasn’t it, and it was good to eat regularly? Well, yes and no really. If you skip meals you tend to overeat and/or make poor food choices because your blood sugar levels are low, and then you fall into a pattern of what I call random eating. And on the 5:2 you just can’t do that, you have to keep going with the fasting stage and that’s when all the benefits happen. And let’s face it; we were designed to eat when we could and the idea that we always have to eat every couple of hours just doesn’t make sense to me, especially as most of us barely move anyway, nor do we have to keep ourselves warm.

The most important thing is making a good plan, and working out when the most important meal of the day is for you. If you want to skip breakfast and make up the calories in the evening then do. Almost everyone I have seen for this is sticking to it and is used to it, and feels pretty good too.

This is an email I received from a client:

" Just wanted to say thanks so much for putting me on the 5,2 diet, it’s been quite revolutionary! I’ve lost 9lbs already from it, and it’s become so much easier these days. And often on the non-fast days I hardly feel hungry either. And not only that but I’ve got loads more energy, my hair and skin look better, and it’s totally worked like a natural antidepressant – walk round on a high quite a lot. It’s been awesome. I think it’s going to change the world! Hoping to get down to my ultimate goal of 9 1/2 stone and think it can happen, feels like the first thing ever that really works! "

I love the idea of all that energy and good mood!

This is another typical  meal on one of the fast days and the evening meal is pretty filling.

 

Breakfast

Medium poached egg - 77 cals

On Rude Health Multigrian Thin - 23 cals

Cup of tea with semi skimmed milk - 20 cals

Total - 120 cals

Lunch

Green soup (see first blog) - 80 cals

Cup of tea with semi skimmed milk - 20 cals

Sub Total - 220 cals

Evening meal

Chicken breast with herbs, garlic & lemon - 150 cals

Baked sweet potato in skin, 100g - 90 cals

Watercress, celery & cucumber salad - 10 cals

1 tsp butter or olive oil OR 100g honeydew melon - 30 cals

TOTAL - 500 cals

 

Steamed chicken breast with herbs, garlic and lemon

Trim all the fat from the chicken breast with scissors. Then cut three slits in it and fill with crushed garlic and finely chopped fresh herbs like basil, thyme and parsley. Stuff a slice of lemon into each slit, sprinkle with black pepper and Seagreens the Mineral Salt (a delicious rock salt mixed with crushed seaweed) and then steam it for about 20-25 minutes until cooked all the way through. Steaming it keeps it from becoming dry, as you have no oil. It is surprisingly delicious.

Men can have a slightly bigger lunch eg a Pret soup up to 180 calories. Their cream of mushroom has 148 calories.

It can be done!

In Nutrition, Recipes Tags 5:2 diet, diet, nutrition
← Wonderful WatercressHealthy Soda Bread →

FOLLOW ME...

INSTAGRAM

@melaniebrownnutritionist

 
View fullsize My favourite watercress - John Hurd’s organic - the King of salad vegetables and rocket fuel for all our cells. 

Watercress has one of the highest amounts of anti-inflammatory chemicals, 
cell-protective antioxidants and microbiome-loving poly
View fullsize It may not be a great idea to use a collagen supplement if you suffer from endometriosis. 

The evidence for or against is unclear but I think if there is ANY evidence at all suggesting it may worsen the condition, I am going to tell my clients to av
View fullsize
View fullsize Interesting new study that may offer hope in the future for the mysteries of recurrent miscarriage for some people.

#miscarriages #recurrentmiscarriage #miscarriage #miscarriageawareness
View fullsize
View fullsize I have recently seen a lot of men using the weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro for obesity and the poor sperm parameters associated with it. And I am fully supportive as obesity, especially around the abdomen is a major cause of low testoste
View fullsize Fabulous new book, and yes, just absolutely delicious recipes!

#summersalad #healthysalad #delicioussalads #thesaladproject #unusualsalads#
View fullsize What an absolutely lovely day, learning about medicinal plants and herbs to use in my practice. 

We go to gorgeous Sussex once a month for our year long course with @juliabehrensmedicalherbalist.

And the best thing is spending a whole day with my f
View fullsize I love potato salad and this is from my friend. I asked her if I could pretend it was mine but she didn’t reply 😂. So I cannot fraudulently claim the idea! 

With snow peas and spring onion and homemade pesto with basil and rocket and Parmesan
View fullsize
View fullsize One of my favourite days when the sun and London really shine! Taste of London in Regent’s Park.
There are so many stands showing fabulous creative little food companies. The atmosphere is brilliant and very restorative and well, just fun! 

It
View fullsize Summer salad for lunch and colour is key.
This is watercress, red cabbage, tomato, carrot, and avocado. Fresh and delicious. 

#mediterraneandiet #summerlunch #healthylunch #healthylunchideas
View fullsize If you are trying to become pregnant, stop your ozempic/mounjaro/wegovy two months before stopping your contraception. And use a barrier contraception as well as or instead of the Pill as the drugs can affect the effectiveness of the Pill.

This is b
View fullsize Look after your delicate bits! 

Tampons contain phthalates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), PFAS, and heavy metals like lead, and some are even fragranced. 

These chemicals disrupt the delicate eco system of the vaginal microbiome and are easily
View fullsize I’m back with the fabulous boys! 

We shall be talking about how nutrition and lifestyle affects male fertility, what’s fact and what’s fiction.

Open to everyone.
Zoom 8pm, Wednesday 4th June. Your camera on or off, you can eat you
View fullsize
View fullsize My next reading and it will be so good! Reminders and new things too. 

#inflammation
View fullsize Mushroom and purple sprouting pasta. 
Both so fabulously good for you!
With red onion, garlic, crème fraiche, lemon juice, a little veg or chicken stock and some porcini mushroom powder from Waitrose. 
Took 12 minutes to cook.
I love an all in
View fullsize Tomorrow Sunday at 9am I shall be talking to the inspirational Emma Belle of @tfmrmamas as part of TFMR Awareness Day.
Here is the link to the day
https://www.tfmrawarenessday.com/2025
Please join us.
 

Female Fertility • Male Fertility • Pregnancy Nutrition • Blog

 
 
Contact

© 2024 Melanie Brown Nutrition. All rights reserved. PRIVACY POLICY

Photography by Emma Croman. Logo by Pia Knight. Website by Tania Smith