I've spoken to a few people recently about Intermittent Fasting: It's suggested that by fasting for two non consecutive days a week people can safely lose weight and see significant improvements in health e.g. lower levels of insulin and glucose in the blood, for example, which can significantly increase sensitivity to insulin and a reduced risk of diabetes.
There's a really good article about this approach on the Scientific American website. This does mention some of the possible drawbacks and explains the possible benefits in a clear, easy to read format.
It was also the subject of a recent Horizon documentary . Look carefully at the part where the presenter is at the London Marathon and you can see my friend Alan run behind him wearing the distinctive yellow vest of the local running club.....
There's also more information here which does give some links through to some suggested menus.
There are books on the subject but I think one of the best aspects of this approach is its simplicity: eat 600 calories on the two fasting days - it's up to you how you spread those out but make sure they are good quality calories including some protein and that's it....on non fasting days eat as normal and keep an eye on portion size. It's seems to be as simple as that. But as for whether it works ....research is ongoing but anecdotal evidence from some friends has suggested that they have found it fairly easy to stick to (although they confessed to going to bed early on the fasting days to deal with the hunger pains...) and that they have achieved a steady weight loss - around 2lb a week - for the two months they've been trying the eating method. It will be interesting to see the results of the academic studies into the method to see if it does turn out to be the "magic pill" for weight loss that it seems to promise to be.
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