If you’ve been struggling to lose pounds, wondering how you’ll get through week after week of dieting, there’s good news on the weight loss front: Dieting for just two days a week and eating normally for the rest of the week may actually help you lose more weight than trying to diet every day. It may also cut your risk of cancer.
Another advantage of this new style of dieting: It seems to easily fit into a busy lifestyle while trimming your waistline and improving health.
Intermittent Dieting, Steady Benefits
An expanding collection of research is showing the benefits of what is called “intermittent dieting.” What these studies have demonstrated is that you don’t have to diet every day of your life to lose inches around your middle and maintain your weight, you merely have to watch what you eat for just two days a week. And the weight loss that results from intermittent dieting has been found to lower levels of insulin, a cancer-promoting hormone.
In the most recent study, scientists at the Genesis Prevention Center at University Hospital in South Manchester, England found that eating a restricted, low-carb diet for two days a week helped women lose more weight over a period of four months than did restricting calories seven days a week. Continue reading →