Move over, followers of the Atkins diet, Mediterranean diet and vegan plans.
Related: Dash Diet Crowned Best Overall
A new diet book -- one that promotes fasting two days a week by drastically
cutting calories and then eating normally the other five days -- is catching on
with dieters, but it already has its British author unexpectedly on the
defensive.
The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy and Live Longer With the Simple Secret
of Intermittent Fasting (Atria Books, $24), by British physician Michael Mosley
and writer Mimi Spencer, is No. 46 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.
Mosley stars in an upcoming three-part PBS series. The first part, Eat, Fast and
Live Longer With Michael Mosley, airs April 3.
The diet has a following in the United Kingdom, including some cardiovascular
surgeons, TV journalists, chefs and celebrities.
But the book is generating a bit of controversy on this side of the pond.
Obesity experts in the USA say the diet may be hard for many people to adhere
to, and more research needs to be done to determine if it's safe and effective.
And one U.S. researcher doesn't like how her work was used to support the diet.
"I am a scientist at heart, and I do not remotely claim that this is the be-all
and end-all," Mosley says. "It's just the beginning of something interesting.
People need to try it for themselves and see if it works."
Mosley, 55, who works for the BBC as a medical journalist, says that when he
first read about intermittent fasting, he was skeptical about benefits, too.
"Nothing in my medical training had prepared me for this," he says. Although
most of the world's great religions advocate fasting for faith purposes and some
for health reasons, it seemed drastic and difficult to him.
But then Mosley had some medical tests done and discovered he had some risk
factors for heart disease and diabetes, and he was a bit too heavy. "My doctor
recommended I go on medication for high blood sugar and high cholesterol. She
predicted that in 10 years I would be on eight different medications. I decided
I wanted to find a different way."
So he asked his boss at the BBC if he could use himself as a "guinea pig" to
explore the science behind life extension, which focuses on calorie restriction
and fasting.
Based on his review of the research, he created what he calls the "5:2 diet."
Five days a week, he eats normally; two days a week, he eats 600 calories. For
women, he recommends 500 calories on the fasting days. That would be about two
poached eggs on a slice of whole-grain toast and a bowl of raspberries for one
meal, and roasted salmon with green beans and cherry tomatoes for another.
'One meal, if you fancy'
Daily caloric needs vary depending on gender, age, height and physical-activity
level. An older sedentary woman might need only 1,600 calories a day to maintain
her weight, while an active younger man might need 3,000.
Mosley divides his calories on the fasting days into two meals -- breakfast and
lunch. "You can have it all in one meal, if you fancy. I found I was really
quite irritable if I didn't have breakfast."
If people eat 500 or 600 calories on the two fasting days each week and don't
