Dr. Mosley's three diets: an expert's experience

Surely many were inspired by the athletic physique and healthy appearance of the athletes at the Olympics, which recently took place in London.

Of course, achieving such a result is not easy - to acquire a sculpted athlete's body, you need to train hard every day. Dr. Michael Mosley tried to determine from his own experience whether diet can be an alternative to heavy physical exercise and prolong life.

As the scientist himself says, several months ago he set himself the task of finding a way to stay young as long as possible, get rid of excess weight and find a path to longevity.

"I also wanted to make minimal changes to my lifestyle and still enjoy the foods I love. After consulting with several scientific experts, I began developing a diet that would challenge conventional wisdom about how and when we should eat. I became interested in something called intermittent fasting.

Despite the fact that most religions condone fasting, I have always been skeptical of the claims of medical benefits of such diets. I have always followed the standard rule: never skip meals and do not exhaust yourself with strict diets. The reason for my negative attitude to such abstinence from food was simple - people who undereat, trying to achieve the desired result in this way, often later ruin all their efforts. When hungry, they begin to consume large quantities of high-fat snacks, promising themselves to punish themselves tomorrow and not eat a bite. Express diets, thanks to which a person loses weight quickly, are also untrustworthy. Basically, a person loses only water, a little fat mass, and sometimes muscle mass into the bargain."

Dr. Mosley was initially interested in the diet of Fauji Singh, who at 101 is the oldest marathon runner. However, the diminutive marathon runner is a vegetarian and eats a monotonous diet, which does not suit Dr. Mosley, who is a big fan of tasty food.

The doctor then decided to resort to periodic fasting, which Professor Valter Longo had advised him. He based the success of this method on the unprecedented health of the experimental mice. Under Professor Longo's supervision, Dr. Mosley fasted for four days.

"I started my experiment on Monday night," he says. "Before that, I couldn't resist and allowed myself a sumptuous dinner of a golden-brown steak.

My hunger pangs ended on Friday, after I had all my tests done.

Throughout the fasting experiment, my diet included black tea, coffee and plenty of water.

Already on the first day I was convinced that I would be faced with fainting spells from hunger and visions of delicious dishes, and that in the end I would give in and head straight to the nearest bakery to taste the bakers’ crispy masterpieces.

However, my expectations were not confirmed, after the first twenty-four hours I felt great. And even more, the slight feeling of hunger passed, and I felt incredible lightness.

On Friday morning I weighed myself and found that I had lost only two pounds of fat, but my blood glucose levels were significantly lower and my insulin levels, which had been higher than normal, were cut in half.

Thus, I learned that fasting is not self-torture and a chain of fainting spells. And most importantly, the "chemistry" of my body improved.

However, Dr. Longo, under whose care I was, warned me that in order to maintain my shape and the results achieved by fasting, I must change my diet and limit the amount of protein I consumed.”

Since the foods that give most people the most pleasure - meat and fish - are rich in protein, Dr. Mosley had to abandon Professor Longo's method.

Dr. Mosley then turned to his colleague at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Krista Varady.

While chatting with Dr. Vardy at a diner, while wolfing down burgers and French fries, Dr. Mosley learned about her method for losing weight. Dr. Vardy said she was testing her method on volunteers, and the gist of it was not to exclude your favorite foods from your diet, even greasy pizza. Thanks to the so-called fasting day diet, one day you eat as you want, and the next day you limit the calories you consume.

Dr. Mosley organized two fasting days a week for two months - Tuesday and Thursday. He claims that after a short adaptation period, he was able to stick to this diet without much difficulty.

Dr. Varady herself was surprised that her volunteers, including Dr. Mosley, did not overeat on normal days after fasting, but ate normally, gradually getting used to healthy food.

After taking tests after two months of the experiment, Dr. Mosley was very pleased with the results. All the tested parameters – fat mass, glucose, insulin and cholesterol levels in the blood – were better than before the diet. Mosley felt light and cheerful and promised to continue to stick to the 5:2 diet (5 “normal” days a week, 2 fasting days), since this method suited him best.

However, neither Dr. Mosley nor Dr. Varady consider this method universal. Such a diet may not suit everyone, and it is better to choose the diet of fasting days individually.

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