Part-time dieting is more effective than any quick-fix pill

Part-time dieting is more effective than any quick-fix pill

Interesting article.

Slimming pills may seem the fast track to weight loss if you’re ­struggling to stick to an eating plan.
But new research shows there’s an easier, healthier option: part-time dieting, or cutting ­calories for just two days a week.

For most people, diets are a ­seesaw. We start with the best intentions, but after a day feel so hungry we head straight for the biscuit tin.
It seems wrong, but this stop-start approach could be the most ­effective way to shift the pounds.
In a study at Wythenshawe Hospital, in ­Manchester, dietician Dr Michelle Harvie put 100 overweight women on two diet plans.
One group ate normally for most of the week, then dropped to 650 calories a day for two days, while the other group stuck to 1,500 calories every day.

The intermittent dieters lost around 13lb over six months — the same as the other group. Dr Harvie said: ‘On the two-day diet you can restrict your calories far more than you would if you were on a diet every single day.’ Proponents of this approach say we are ­genetically programmed to adapt to cycles of fasting and feasting. Our bodies react positively to the temporary withdrawal of food because the mind tells us that it won’t be long before more is to come.

Previous research on mice has shown that eating half as much as usual every other day can shrink fat cells and boost some of the mechanisms that break down fat.
However, some experts warn this part-time diet should be a short-term fix.

Catherine ­Collins, chief ­dietician at St George’s Hospital, in London, warns: ‘Skipping meals and eating one large evening meal can result in risky metabolic changes that could lead to ­diabetes.’

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