New Diet Craze: 5 Days of Feasting For 2 Days of Famine

London - Forget abandoning
carbohydrates or detoxing. The
new dieting craze sweeping Europe
and the U.S. lets people eat
whatever they like - but only five
days a week. "The Fast Diet", also
known as the 5:2 diet, is the
brainchild of TV medical journalist
Michael Mosley and journalist
Mimi Spencer and allows people to
eat what they want for five days
but only eat 600 calories a day on
the other two.
Mosley said the diet is based on
work by scientists who found
intermittent fasting helped people
lose more fat, increase insulin
sensitivity and cut cholesterol which
should mean reduced risk of heart
disease and diabetes.
He tried this eating regime for a
television science program last
August after finding out his
cholesterol level was too high and
his blood sugar in the diabetic range.
He was stunned by the results.
"I started doing intermittent fasting a
year ago, lost 8 kgs of fat over 3
months and my blood results went
back to normal," Mosley says.
Mosley said he had been amazed at
the way the diet had taken off with a
list of websites set up by followers of
the 5:2 diet or variations of the eating
regime to share their experiences.
Eating a 600 calorie daily diet - about
a quarter of a normal healthy adult's
intake - could consist of two eggs for
breakfast, grilled chicken and lettuce
for lunch, and fish with rice noodles
for dinner with nothing to drink but
water, black coffee or tea.
One Day At a Time
Mosley put the diet's success down
to the fact it is psychologically
attractive and leads to steady drop in
weight with an average weekly loss of
0.46kg for women and slightly more
for men.
"The problem with standard diets is
that you feel like you are constantly
having to exercise restraint and that
means you are thinking about food
all the time, which becomes self-
defeating," said Mosley.
"On this regime you are only really
on a diet two days a week. It is also
extremely flexible and simple."
On its website last month the
Britain's National Health Service
(NHS) said the British Dietetic
Association (BDA) reviewed a 2011
study by researchers at the UK's
University Hospital of South
Manchester that suggested
intermittent fasting could help lower
the risk of certain obesity-related
cancers such as breast cancer.
"The increasing popularity of the 5:2
diet should lead to further research
of this kind," the BDA said in a
statement.
Schenker, a sports and media
dietitian who works with football
clubs and food companies, said it
was a shame that the NHS had
criticized the eating regime that had
proved such a success with so many
people.
"We are in the midst of an obesity
crisis and you need to balance up
which is worse - intermittent fasting
of staying obese?" Schenker told
Reuters.
Despite concerns raised by the NHS,
the 5:2 diet has been widely praised
by those who follow it.