Don't believe everything you see on T.V. (and certainly not everything you read on the Internet). These “new” fasting diets that everyone is talking about –The Fast Diet, the 5:2 Diet, and seemingly endless variations of alternate-day or intermittent fasting "IF" diets – aren't really “new" at all! They're built on research that has been around for decades ... research that helped launch the Hollywood Miracle Diet® more than 16 years ago!
All of these other diets are cashing in on what we already knew!
Back in 1997, Jamie Kabler and Larry Turner paired the health benefits of fasting with a delicious juice that fulfills all of your short term nutritional needs. The juice-based diet easily allowed people to decrease caloric intake to fasting levels without worrying about starving their bodies. The Hollywood 48-Hour Miracle Diet® was born!
Fasting literally reorganizes the body's natural chemistry through a process related to our ancestral history-back when eating was truly a feast or famine routine! This reorganization allows us to burn more fat, lose more weight, and even decreases the risk of various diseases including Alzheimer's.
But fasting allows you to lose more weight than standard calorie-restrictive diets alone. How?
Fasting decreases the amount of insulin in the blood and increases insulin sensitivity at the same time. Your body is more able to easily control glucose levels. Excess glucose is turned into fat, so if you can burn more of it before it settles on your love handles, you're doing well.
But there's more! By decreasing the amount of calories available in the blood stream, fasting tells your body to turn on the fat burning furnaces! Through a process called lipolysis, the body allows excess body fat to be broken down in order to create the energy you need to work, exercise, and even just get out of bed in the morning.
Fat is a killer. Higher levels of internal fat have a tremendous impact on your health. And internal omentum fat (sometimes called belly fat) is the worst. Multiple doctors including Dr. Memet Oz (Dr. OZ), Dr. Rick Tague (the Center for Nutrition & Preventive Medicine), and Dr. Barbara B. Kahn (the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) all warn of the dangers of omental fat. It increases your risk of heart disease, ovarian cancer, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, Alzheimer's, and even Parkinson's.
Omental fat also inhibits the release of a key stress and inflammation reducing chemical called adiponectin. Low-levels of this chemical have been correlated with high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, and coronary artery disease. Additionally, because omental fat secretes hormones, it can radically alter your body's natural balance-especially in women.
Unfortunately, by eating on a regular basis-even healthful meals-you're training your body to pack on pounds. As Dr. Michael Mosley, Author of The Fast Diet, writes: "all the time you are eating, your insulin levels are elevated and your body is stuck in fat-storing mode . . . only after a few hours of fasting is your body able to turn off the fat-storing and turn on the fat-burning mechanisms."
So, burning fat (including omental fat) and not just decreasing weight gain is essential for good health. Fasting is one of the most effective ways to do that. The Hollywood Miracle Diet® can help you fast comfortably.
But fat isn't the only culprit. High levels of glucose in the blood overwork the pancreas-which pumps out insulin. Eventually your body develops insulin resistance and in extreme cases your blood glucose levels will be constantly elevated: this is essentially Type 2 diabetes. Diabetes comes with its own elevated risks including: heart attack, impotence, stroke, blindness, and circulatory problems which could result in amputations!
But diabetes isn't the only health problem caused by elevated levels of insulin. Research by Dr. Michelle Harvie, a dietician at the Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Centre at the Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester, England, has shown that being obese and having high levels of insulin are extremely powerful risk factors for breast cancer.
Dr. Andrew Weil, Founder and Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, also agrees that fasting can "reset" the body's internal workings. Citing a review by University of California, Berkeley, Weil concluded that intermittent fasting decreases the risk of all the diseases mentioned above and improves your mental functions! The research even shows that fasting can protect against Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
When you use a fasting diet such as that recommended by The Hollywood 24 or 48 Hour Miracle Diet®s, you're consuming fewer calories over a prolonged periods (400 calories per day). So, YES, you will lose weight with fasting as a result of reduced caloric intake. But, it's really resetting your body chemistry that's important. Fasting creates decreased insulin levels, decreased internal fat levels, and decreased available glucose, and more balanced hormone levels. These factors alone may dramatically decrease your risk of deadly diseases and boost the quality of your life! Because getting fit isn't just about losing the weight!
