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(Image source: Amazon.com) BY LAUREN ZIMA
We probably all want to lose weight fast, but the latest diet craze promises that in
more ways than one. The Fast Diet seems to be making people lose weight fast...but to
do it, they’re fasting.
For the diet, you can eat whatever you want five days a
week, but for two days a week — you fast...just 500 calories each day for women, 600 for men.
The Chew explains how it works...
“If you eat less calories, your body over time
will start drop the metabolism. But by tricking it — eating whatever you want, then restricting
calories, the idea is that you keep metabolism high and just end up losing weight.”
A
book on the diet was authored by a London-based doctor and a writer.
The doctor says
he lost 20 lbs. in his first three months on the diet, and that his glucose and cholesterol
levels went down. And Business Insider points out other potential positives -- some studies
have shown fasting...
-improves memory
-improves mood
-increases effectiveness of insulin
in the body
-makes you live longer
But the diet certainly has its critics. People
Magazine says just the thought of eating only 500 calories a day is awful, and spoke with
experts who warn 500 calories a day can actually slow your metabolic rate. Plus...
"If
you eat very little on Monday, by Tuesday you may say, I am going to have that brownie
because yesterday I ate nothing ...I can see more junk working its way into this diet,
and over time you could end up with serious nutrient deficiencies."
And Britain’s
National Health Service has spoken out against The Fast Diet, saying too little is known
about intermittent fasting for it to be safe.
The diet book is new to the US. In Britain, it
has become a bestseller.
The New York Times reports it was published in mid-January
and has held the No. 1 spot on Amazon’s British site since.