"The 5-2 Diet and the Fasting- Mimicking Diet Put to the Test"
What about instead of eating every other day
you ate five days a week and fasted the other two?
The available data is actually similar to that of alternate-day fasting.
About a dozen pounds of weight loss was reported in overweight men and women
over a 6-month period with no difference found
between those on the 5:2 intermittent fasting regimen
and those on a continuous 500-calories-a-day restriction.
The largest trial to date found an 18-pound weight loss within six months
in the 5:2 group, not significantly different from the 20 pounds lost
in the continuous calorie restriction group.
Weight maintenance over a subsequent six months
was also found to be no different.
Though feelings of hunger may be more pronounced on the 5:2 pattern
than an equivalent level of daily calorie cutting,
it does not seem to lead to overeating on the non-fasting days.
One might expect going two days without food might negatively impact mood,
but no such adverse impact was noted for those fully fasting
on zero calories or sticking to just two packets of oatmeal
on each of the “fasting” days (which provided about 500 calories a day).
Like alternate-day fasting, the 5:2 fasting pattern appeared to have
inconsistent effects on cognition and lean mass preservation,
and failed to live up to the popular notion that intermittent fasting
would prove to be easier to adhere to than daily calorie restriction.
In fact, fewer subjects on the 5:2 pattern expressed interest
in continuing the diet after the study was over
compared to the continuous restriction control group,
attributed to quality of life issues, citing headaches, lack of energy
and the difficulty of fitting the fasting days into their weekly routine.
However, there has yet to be a single 5:2 diet study
showing elevated LDL cholesterol
compared to continuous calorie restriction
at six months or a year, offering a potential
advantage over alternate-day regimens.
Instead of 5:2, what about 25:5, spending five days a month
on a fasting-mimicking diet?
Longevity researcher Valter Longo designed a five-day meal plan
to try to simulate the metabolic effects of fasting by being low
in protein, sugars, and calories with zero animal protein or animal fat.
By making it plant-based, he was hoping to lower the level of the
cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1, which he indeed accomplished,
along with a drop in markers of inflammation,
after three cycles of his five-days-a-month program.
One hundred men and women were randomized to consume his fasting-mimicking diet
for five consecutive days per month or to maintain
their regular diet the whole time.
After three months, the FMD group (the fasting-mimicking diet group)
was down about six pounds compared to control,
with significant drops in body fat and waist circumference,
accompanied by a drop in blood pressures.
Those who were the worse off accrued the most dramatic benefits.
What’s even crazier is that three further months after completion
some of the benefit appeared to persist,
suggesting the effects may last for several months.
It's unclear, though, if those randomized to the fasting mimicking diet group
used it as an opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes
to help maintain some of the weight loss.
Dr. Longo created a company to commercially market his meal plan,
but to his credit, he says he donates 100% of the
profits he receives from it to charity.
The whole diet appears to mostly just be a few dehydrated soup mixes,
herbal teas like hibiscus and chamomile, kale chips, nut-based energy bars,
an algae-based DHA supplement,
and a multivitamin dusted with vegetable powder.
So, I figure why spend 50 dollars a day on a few processed snacks
when you could instead eat a few hundred calories a day of...
real vegetables?