IS FAST 800 YOUR WEIGHT LOSS SOLUTION?

Dr Michael Mosley talks to DL about how losing weight fast helped manage his type 2 and how it can help you too

Is fast weight loss good – we so often hear that slow and steady is better?

There is a widespread belief that if you lose weight fast, you will eventually put it back on, and even faster.

However, a review article in The New England Journal of Medicine entitled ‘Myths, Presumptions and Facts about Obesity’, put this claim firmly into the ‘myths’ category.

Rapid weight loss seems to be particularly beneficial in people with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes but, if you are on medication, then you should talk to your doctor before embarking on such a diet.

A number of studies, including a recent Australian one, have shown the benefits of rapid weight loss compared with slow and steady.

The Australian study involved 200 obese volunteers who were either randomly allocated to a low-calorie diet (less than 800 calories (3350kj) a day) for 12 weeks or asked to cut their calories by 500 a day for 36 weeks.

There was a very high dropout rate in the ‘slow and steady’ group, with less than half making it to the end of the 36-week trial. Most gave up because they were frustrated by the slow rate of progress. By comparison, more than 80 per cent of those in the rapid weight loss group completed the 12-week program.

Researchers followed all participants for three years and, although people from both groups put some weight back on, the amounts were similar. The results showed that achieving a weight-loss target was more likely, and drop-out was lower, if losing weight was done quickly.

What’s a good amount of weight to lose?

Ideally, you want to lose enough weight to reduce your risk of getting diabetes and, if you have it, to get rid of it. Studies have shown that men with a waist size over 100cm are five times more likely to develop diabetes than those with a smaller waist size. Women with a waist over 88cm are three times more likely to develop the condition.

If you can get your waist down to less than half your height, even better. I am 1.8m tall so my ideal waist size is less than 90cm.

What we do know is that an 800-calorie diet is a great way to shrink your waist, fast. Many major weight-loss studies are now based on 800 calories a day, which is high enough to be sustainable and give you the protein and nutrients you need, and low enough to lead to rapid weight loss and other beneficial health changes.

A recent major study, The DiRECT Trial, explored the power of sticking to around

800 calories/day for up to five months to achieve major weight loss and remission from type 2 diabetes. The results were quite staggering. Not only did 46 per cent of participants in the intervention group achieve remission from diabetes (compared with 4 per cent in the control group), they also managed to lose an average of 10kg and keep it off. ➤

Another important finding was that after two years, there were much higher rates of complications such as heart disease, strokes and cancer in the control group (following standard medical advice) than those allocated to the 800-calorie rapid weight-loss regimen.

In another important study carried out by researchers from Oxford University, The DROPLET Trial, obese and overweight participants were assigned to either an 800 calorie/day diet for eight weeks, or their current usual care support (control). Those who followed the 800-calorie protocol had lost an average of 10.7kg after 12 months – three times more weight than the control group.

In 2012 I was told by my doctor that I had type 2 diabetes like my father, who died from complications of the disease at the age of 74. Rather than start on medication, I developed the original Fast Diet, which has now evolved into The Fast 800. I lost 9kg and restored my blood [glucose] levels to normal, where they have stayed. When I tested my fasting blood [glucose] levels this morning, they were 4.8mmol/L, a very healthy number.

How do I go from eating a lot to only 800cal a day?

Moving to 800 calories doesn’t sound like it could get you through the day. In fact, many people on The Fast 800 online program do express a fear of not being able to cope. This is why your choice of foods – low-ish carb, Mediterranean-style – is the key to success.

Research shows that a lowcarbohydrate Mediterraneanstyle diet not only suppresses appetite, but has the power to preserve muscle as you burn off fat, so you will find it easier to keep the weight off afterwards. It will also cut your risk of long-term chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, dementia and heart disease.

This approach is low in sugar and starchy carbs, but packed full of disease-fighting vitamins and minerals. It is rich in olive oil, fish, nuts, fruit and vegetables, and it also contains lots of delicious foods that, over the years, we have been told not to eat, such as full-fat yoghurt and eggs. Avoiding sugary and starchy carbs helps control your blood [glucose] levels and eating adequate amounts of protein and

Healthy fats keep you feeling full for longer

healthy fats will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Healthy eating is definitely not about starvation.

There’s no doubting that sticking with 800 calories can be difficult to start with. But people who stick with the plan are often amazed at not only how quickly they lose weight, but also how quickly hunger and cravings pass. That’s because on this diet your body quickly switches to burning fat, which in turn will help to suppress your appetite.

Drink plenty of water as you make the transition and ensure that you have the right support for those more testing times… Another reason why the motivation of rapid weight loss can be so powerful.

Why does losing weight improve type 2 diabetes?

Professor Roy Taylor, who is one of the world’s leading diabetes researchers and who helped inspire The Fast 800 diet, told me it was all about having too much gut fat. When you exceed what he calls “your personal fat threshold” then fat leaks out from cells where it can be safely stored into the liver and pancreas. Once these fill with fat, then they become much less efficient at making insulin, the hormone that helps control your blood [glucose] levels. He told me that his research showed that a rapid weight-loss diet can reverse pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes because it rapidly drains the fat from the pancreas and liver. He has been able to show that average fat levels in the liver fall from 30 per cent to less than 5 per cent in just a few weeks after starting on an 800-calorie diet and, that once you drain fat from the pancreas, the cells spring back to life and start producing insulin again.

The diet works best in those who have pre-diabetes or have had diabetes for less than 10 years, but he has seen cases where people have reversed their disease after having it for far longer.

He assures me that most people will remain diabetes-free as long as they keep the weight off, a claim which is supported by a number of studies, including one published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology (March 2019), which found that the remission is maintained provided the weight loss is sufficiently large and kept off.