Are you looking for a diet that allows you to eat good food, but can still help you lose weight? Here is the latest in the diet market – the 5:2 diet, which is just for those who cannot keep their hands off their favorite snacks and still want to keep their weight normal.
Sounds unlikely? Well, read this post to know more!
In this diet, you can eat anything you want for the first five days in a week and send the body into starvation mode in the last two days (1). Though fasting has been there as a ritual, it was in the 1940s that the medical science started taking it seriously as a way to lose weight. During the 1940s, several tests were carried out to find out the potential effects of fasting.
The 5:2 diet received a major boost only in 2013 when a new twist developed around the commonly practiced ritual of fasting that had been also facing political protests for some time. The UK dieting community proposed the advantages of the intermittent fast, and the way in which it can work as a weight loss wonder. The people were told that they could eat whatever they want during the Christmas period and still can lose weight by following this 5:2 diet.
Including fasting as a part of the weight loss program actually took momentum when it was broadcast on the BBC in August 2012 in a Horizon episode that said, ‘Eat Fast and Live Longer’. According to a doctor on the panel and Michael Mosley, a journalist who came up with this diet, the 5:2 diet was nothing short of a genuine revolution.
A book ‘The fast diet’ followed the program in January 2013. After a month from the publication of this book by Mosley, Kate Harrison, a former BBC journalist, came up with her own version on the same topic titled ‘The 5:2 diet book’. Although the general principles in both the books are similar, the recommendations vary slightly.
The diet is quite simple, and hence has become very much popular in a short time. The principle of the diet allows you to eat whatever you want five days a week and then expects you to control your eating only for the next two days. The experts in this form of diet recommend the dieters to consume ‘normal’ number of calories in any five days of the week, and then for two non-consecutive days, the dieters are advised to eat only 25% of their regular calorie intake.
It recommends a 500 calorie diet for women and a 600 calorie diet for men in the last two days (2). So, on an average, both men and women should eat around 2,000 to 2,200 calories during the five days when you are free to eat anything. You can eat anything of your choice, and there are no restrictions during these five days. With this type of suggested weight loss diet, women can lose around 1lb in one week, and men can lose the same amount of weight or a little more.
This diet is easier to follow as compared to the regular calorie restriction diet. Fasting is a very simple concept, but not everyone can control their hunger, and for such people, it can be a limiting factor. Proponents of this diet claim that the 5:2 diet is highly favorable for good health and is linked with:
More studies are expected to uncover the long-term effect of this type of diet on humans.
The evidence that supports this diet is extremely limited as compared to the other types of diet. It is because the research and studies carried out around this diet type are limited, and most of the studies are restricted to fasting for one day in a week and not according to the 5:2 diet model. On the other hand, studies have not been carried out for longer periods, and hence they tend to involve only smaller numbers of participants. Some studies are based only on animals and not on humans.
One study published in 2010 shows that women, who were following the 5:2 diet, had possibly developed reduced risk for some chronic health problems such as diabetes. Another review on this type of diet dating back to 2007 has shown promising results in connection with the intermittent fasting and the protection it offers against type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart diseases.
However, even the authors of the study have concluded that more inputs and studies are necessary before drawing definite conclusions. A review published in 2012 has said that the 5:2 diet can possibly reduce the risk of breast cancer. A study carried out on mice with changes in the brains similar to those found in humans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, showed that intermittent fasting reduced the decline in the cognitive functions as compared to those on a normal diet. Cognitive function includes important aspects such as thinking, perception, remembering, and reasoning.
In a nutshell, experts are of the opinion that although at present, the results of this diet look good, more study and research is needed so that a definite conclusion can be drawn and the exact pros and cons of the 5:2 diet are understood. Since this form of diet has now become extremely popular, in the coming few years, the results and research outcomes will definitely start appearing.
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