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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
The Fast Diet summary
Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer
Lose Weight, Stay Healthy and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting
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4.3 (174 ratings)
14 mins
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What is The Fast Diet about?
The Fast Diet (2013) is a guide to intermittent fasting and its health benefits. The 2015 edition includes a revised and expanded theory behind intermittent fasting, along with advice for physical exercise.
About the Author
Michael Mosley holds a medical degree from the Royal Free Hospital Medical School. Also a television journalist and producer, Mosley in 1995 was named Medical Journalist of the Year by the British Medical Association.
Mimi Spencer is a journalist and author. Along with Michael Mosley, she is a co-author of 101 Things To Do Before You Diet and The Fast Diet. She also writes for The Guardian, Marie Claire and Harper’s Bazaar.
Table of Contents
Key idea 1 of 6
Fasting is evolutionarily more “normal” and healthier for us than is eating three meals a day.
The current medical advice for a healthy and happy life tells us that we should eat low-fat foods and exercise more. But does this sort of prescription work? Not really.
Today, worldwide obesity rates are soaring. We are fatter and less healthy than we ever were, and cardiovascular diseases are among the top killers around the globe.
How can we fix this? The solution is fasting, in particular intermittent fasting, which means you alternate periods of eating normally and not eating at all.
We’ve actually been switching between a state of “feast or famine” for millennia. Thus, our bodies respond extraordinarily well to intermittent fasting, as it mimics the environment in which we lived as we evolved as humans.
So what are the benefits of intermittent fasting?
Medical articles have shown that fasting can reduce oxidative damage and inflammation, can optimize energy metabolism and can also increase cellular protection in the body. This means that fasting intermittently can help you reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.
Other research suggests however that frequently eating smaller portions of food increases the body’s metabolic rate, and therefore can help you lose weight.
But is this really accurate? Researchers from the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague, Czech Republic, found out that it isn’t.
In a study, two groups of type 2 diabetics consumed 1,700 calories, divided daily into either two meals or six meals.
Although the amount of calories was the same for each group, the two-meal-a-day group lost an average of three pounds and about 1.5 inches more from their waists than did the group that ate six meals.
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Who should read The Fast Diet
- Anyone who wants to enjoy better health
- People frustrated with traditional diet plans
- People interested in the connection between fasting and reducing disease risk
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