Get a healthier and leaner body with short term fasting

If you’re perpetually making diet attempts but giving up after a few days, this new study may just be your saving grace.

"The spiral of diets is often initiated during teenage years," says Laurence Haurat. "Many of my patients have been brought up by mothers who are followers of very restrictive diets. This has shaped them and put them under enormous pressure. The voices speaking out against these diets remain a minority in the media and in medical offices. "As recalled Ariane Grumbach, "Many people are convinced that there is no alternative to diet to lose weight. Going on a diet is not a must for weight loss, it's quite the opposite. We can do something else but it requires changing habits: listening to your hunger, coming to terms with certain foods, successfully trivializing cravings for food such as chocolate, having confidence, managing stress and emotions rather than eating."

Whether it’s you or your Muslim friends (who’re fasting for Ramadan), not being able to consume food or drink during the day may be hard to put up with, but we’re here to make your day better with this nifty fact. According to US and Italian researchers, short periods of fasting are more effective than traditional diets in making us healthier and slimmer.

By observing a group of 19 people following a low calorie and protein diet for five days a month for three months, the researchers realized that they showed fewer signs of aging, improved regenerative functions in many systems, and reduced the risk of diabetes, heart attack, and cancer. IGF1, one of the chemicals associated with aging in our bodies, was also reduced, showing that the dietary pattern extends our longevity.

And the good news is, you need not even starve during these few days! To accrue the same benefits, you only have to engage in five continuous days of calorie restriction a month, with a 1,000 calorie limit on the first day and 725 calories during the following four days. Long term fasting can be dangerous, and we all love our food too much anyway, so this new diet plan may be one of the most feasible and practical ones yet.

Why get thinner when you can get more dinner? If you want to have a fitter body but was always too attached to those suppers, this new diet may just be your saving grace, making you leaner but much more importantly, healthier.

Yijie Zhang


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Marie France Asia, women's magazine