The Fortnight Diet: Two weeks on, two weeks off

[David Baxter PhD]

The Fortnight Diet
Berkeley Wellness
December 05, 2017

To increase the likelihood of successful long-term weight loss, this twist on a calorie-restricted diet may be worth trying: Alternate two weeks on the diet with two weeks off. This was tested in a small Australian study oddly called MATADOR (Minimizing Adaptive Thermogenesis And Deactivating Obesity Rebound), published recently in the International Journal of Obesity.¹

Researchers from the University of Tasmania put 19 obese men (ages 25 to 54) on a 16-week continuous diet. All meals were provided, and the men?s usual calorie intake was reduced by one-third. Another 17 obese men were put on the same calorie-restricted diet but for two weeks at a time, alternating with two-week ?rest periods? of their customary eating, for a total of 16 weeks of dieting over 30 weeks.

The intermittent dieters not only lost more weight than the continuous dieters (31 vs. 20 pounds), but they regained less weight (7 vs. 13 pounds) during the six months after the end of the diet, so they ended with a 17-pound greater weight loss, on average.

It?s well known that prolonged calorie restriction causes the body to reduce its resting metabolic rate to conserve energy (this is called the famine reaction or adaptive thermogenesis), thus burning fewer calories. That?s one reason why most weight-loss diets fail in the long term.

The researchers hypothesized that two-week cycling on and off the diet lessened this compensatory biological change. In contrast, they pointed out, popular diets that alternate one, two, or several days of complete or partial fasting with days of ?feasting? have been found in studies to be no more effective than conventional continuous dieting.

It?s not known if results would be similar in women, or if weight loss would be as great in real-world conditions (that is, when dieters are not supplied all of their calorie-restricted meals). ?While additional work is needed to further investigate the mechanistic bases for this novel intermittent approach, these findings provide preliminary support for the model as a superior alternative to continuous energy restriction,? the researchers concluded.


¹ Full article in PDF format attached

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Comment:

Preliminary study but with some founding in science. But does it work ion the real world?

I'm generally very skeptical of "new" diets that promise miracles but this doesn't actually do that at all. In fact, technically it's not a diet per se at all but rather an approach to dieting.

May be worth trying if other approaches haven't worked for you.

Of course, the caveat here is that during the two weeks off part of the cycle you can't go nuts and eat junk food and donuts until you're stuffed.

 

[Daniel E.]

you can't go nuts and eat junk food and donuts until you're stuffed.

Well, there goes that diet

I find that grocery shopping less often has helped. I used to go grocery shopping almost every day on my way home from work. But that would lead to overeating. There is the idea in the McDougall diet and other diets that eating a greater variety of foods -- though good nutritionally -- can leave one wanting more.

 

[Daniel E.]

McDougall's opinion about variety:

Variety causes people to consume more food and more calories. Populations of people like rural Asians, Africans, and Peruvians, are known for being trim and avoiding diseases common to Westerners, and their diets consist of limited kinds of foods—a starch and a few locally grown vegetables and fruits.

As a food is eaten, it becomes less appealing, but the taste and appearance of other foods remain relatively unchanged. As a result, more is eaten during a meal consisting of a variety of foods than during a meal with just one food, even if that food is a favorite.

So a simple way to decrease your intake of calories is to make your food choices the same—or in another term, monotonous. This cuts way down on planning, too.

Simple meal plans also have health advantages, especially for those who are highly sensitive. Simple diets result in fewer challenges from the ingredients, like proteins, of foods to the digestive and immune systems of the body—this is especially important for people with allergic and autoimmune diseases (like asthma and arthritis), and those with inflammatory bowel diseases (like gastritis and colitis).

McDougall Newsletter July 2006 More on Mary's Mini-McD Diet