A diet expert has explained a fast and intense way people can lose their belly fat. Speaking on Diary Of A CEO podcast, nutrition and functional medicine expert Dr Mindy Pelz discussed the method of fasting for 36 hours before eating again for 12 hours.
The approach is more intense than Dr Michael Mosely's famous 5:2 diet, where people fast for two days of the week. He also launched the famous Fast 800 diet, which encourages people to eat a relatively low-carb Mediterranean-style diet, consuming no more than 800 calories a day, reports Wales Online.
However, Dr Pelz's approach sees people fasting for longer. She said: "So the fat burner fast is probably my favourite for those people who want to lose weight. At 36 hours what happens is that's enough time where the blood sugars come down.
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"And all of a sudden the body goes 'okay, blood sugar isn't coming, we've been in this fasted state, we've trigger autophagy, we've brought inflammation down, we've made you ketones, we're trying to go find you food, but this extra weight is not serving you'.
"So it drops the weight and it's the most beautiful way to get a person to unstick any kind of weight loss resistance. But most importantly, you know the place where it dropped the most amount of weight from? Where does everyone want to lose weight?"
Podcast host Steven Barlett replies: "The belly." Dr Mindy Pelz responds: "Yep, I should probably should have called it the 'belly fat burning'... So that's what [the research] showed, that actually a 36 hour fast started to unstick weight loss and it started with weight around the belly."
Going into more detail about the study behind the method in a separate video on her own YouTube channel, the health expert explained what researchers found at the end - after participants fasted for 36 hours followed by 12 hours of eating on and off for a 30 day period - was that the prime location people lost weight from was the belly.
"It's really up to you how often you do it." She told viewers. "I've seen people in our academy do it once a week and really change the circumference of their waist." She also says she's seen people do it once a month and once a year, adding that it's up to you how aggressive with it you want to be."
She warned that doing this method once a week was enough to see the results and the safest way to diet.
During this fasting period, Dr Mindy Pelz says zero calorie consumption is permitted, though subscribers of the diet can enjoy flavoured water, coffee, and tea. She claims the method may offer significant benefits including:
- Enhanced longevity
- Better heart health
- Increased fat burning
- More mindfulness
