The Fast – 5 diet makes use of the theory of Fast-5 to facilitate fat loss and reach the desired goal weight. There also exists, the fast-5 lifestyle, which is the permanent adoption of the fast-5 plan to keep maintained the gained lean physique, and reduced calorie intake for substantial effects. The practice for both the diet and lifestyle remains the same.

The 5 steps, that have given the name to this diet called Fast-5, are as follows:-

Learning – what needs to be done and why so?

Goal setting – the ideal weight of an individual

Adjustment – extension of the night time to facilitate eating between 5pm – 10 pm alone

Active loss – loss of a pound per week practiced

Maintenance – not to gain what was lost

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The fast- 5 diet calls for a single stubborn change – extending the current fasting period. The Fast - 5 diet requires the extension of a person’s fasting period to 19 hours, so that he can eat only during the time frame of 5 pm to 10 pm.  The possibility of mindless consumption exists, when one tries to bodily adjust to this sort of a fasting period, but this could be brushed off, once the individual’s body adjusts by becoming less hungry during the fasting period and by not becoming very hungry during the eating window frame.

So, the first day is to not take any food post 10 pm, till 5 pm the next day. The consumption of unsweetened beverages or those with negligible or non-existent calories are permitted.

By adjusting to this first step of the Fast – 5 diet, one can expect as encouragement the following changes:-

To lose about a pound per week

To not be hungry at the wrong times

To be able to resist food better during the fasting period

To break the social culture of eating on a schedule rather than, due to appetite or hunger

There are two kinds of hunger that a person experiences while on a Fast - 5 diet

Limbic Hunger

Hunger, as a result of conflict between regular eating behaviour and the individual’s preference to eat less constitutes limbic hunger. The term limbic is derivative of the limbic system of man, i.e. the system responsible for the base emotions, memory and other primitive drives.  Limbic hunger functions like a trigger and is responsible for the mindless eating that one does, when the appetite trigger is pulled. The Neanderthal instinct of eating wins over higher thinking and other preferences.

Somatic Hunger

While limbic hunger was more on the psychological sense, somatic hunger is very much a physical happening that can be felt by the person by way of discomfort in the stomach, when a person is hungry.  It results due to the various signals of the nerves and hormones, building up many information besides the fact that the stomach is empty.

For a Fast - 5 diet plan to work out, one must accept the 3 days a meal plan to be the biggest hurdle ever to a leaner and healthier person. The Fast - 5 diet is best summed up as being ancient as well as revolutionary.