The 5:2 Diet Promises Quick Weight Loss with Little Cost
Have you ever heard of a diet where you can gorge yourself on pizza and cake and still lose weight? Promises of dropping pounds fast are plastered across television infomercials and web advertisements but seldom do they make good on lofty promises of fit and thin.
The Fast Diet, also known as the 5:2 Diet, just might work, according to “The Fast Diet,” by Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer, but there is one important caveat. While dieters are permitted to eat to their hearts content- pizza, burgers, chips and cookies galore- for five days, they must calorie restrict for two days during the week. Men may consume 600 calories per day and women, 500 calories on those two days. The diet also claims to lower one’s risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
The eating plan has soared in popularity for 2013 since the diet was featured on BBC2. Dr. Mosley reduced his body fat by 25 percent after eating regularly for five days and then calorie restricting for two days out of the week. He remained on the diet for six weeks. After testing himself on the first Friday, he had already lost two lbs. of body fat, his blood glucose levels had fallen dramatically and his IGF-1 levels had fallen by 50 percent.
Studies by the Baltimore National Institute on Aging have, indeed, confirmed that fasting for once or twice a week can reduce one’s levels of IGF-1, which switches on a variety of DNA repair genes that shift the body from a growth mode to repair mode, according to The Telegraph.
Reducing one’s levels of IGF-1 not only encourages fat burning but also reduces the likelihood that one will suffer from diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons, according to the Baltimore National Institute on Aging.
If you think the 5:2 Diet might work for you, check out thefastdiet.co.uk, Dr. Mosley’s official website. His book, “The Fast Diet” is available for order through most major retailers and his website.
