A diet for the obese that works not only to lose weight, but to improve all parameters of metabolic health, namely insulin, blood sugar, triglycerides and high cholesterol. A dual strategy is suggested by a new study that appeared in the journal Obesity.

On the one hand, a calorie restriction that leads to thirty percent fewer calories on a weekly basis.

On the other hand, the possibility of eating according to one’s caloric needs 4 days a week, and with an intermittent fasting that includes only one meal a day for 3 days a week.

According to the researchers, this would lead to the loss of an average of one kilo per week , in favor of fat mass, with a significant reduction in waist circumference and an improvement in metabolic parameters.

DIET FOR OBESIS: THE STUDY

To arrive at this result, researchers at the University of Adelaide in southern Australia divided a sample of 88 slightly obese or severely overweight women into 4 groups.

They then subjected them to different diets. A low calorie diet with less than thirty percent of the daily calories for every day.

A control group with an adequate caloric requirement for their weight and height (normocaloric diet) and two groups who achieved intermittent fasting in a different way.
One, by eating more on non-fasting days.
The other, eating normally on non-fasting days.

The group that followed a normal calorie diet for 4 days but followed the intermittent fasting plan for 3 non-consecutive days lost one pound per week. That’s how.

DIET FOR OBESIS: THE HYPOCHALORIC STRATEGY COMBINED WITH INTERMITTENT FASTING

For 4 days, for example on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays , the women followed a diet in line with their nutritional needs.

Therefore, we can hypothesize a 2000-calorie Mediterranean-type diet to be followed for 4 days a week, or a diet according to your nutritional needs (you can find out here ).

For example, an 1800 calorie diet is this. 
This is a 2000 calorie diet. 

Remember that in the 4 days of non-intermittent diet, calories are not reduced , but you try to follow a normal diet, in line with your calorie needs.
If you are less hungry, you can eat less . But you can’t eat more.

In the 3 days of intermittent fasting , they only consume 30% of the daily calories, almost completely at breakfast, in a meal that must be done before 8 in the morning.

1. In the 1800 calorie diet example, multiply the value of 180 by 3.
2. In the 2000 calorie diet, the value of 200 is multiplied by 3.

Breakfast on intermittent fasting days should be made with a cereal or fruit product (toast, breakfast cereals, oatmeal, wholemeal biscuits), a portion of fat (whole milk, for example, plus two teaspoons of butter or almond butter or chocolate) plus a moderate protein one (half a pack of Greek yogurt, or two egg whites, or defatted ham). Total calories must be 30% of our daily requirement.

From eight in the morning until the next day we fast in this way.

1. You take tea or herbal tea with stevia or a zero-calorie sweetener.
2. You can eat a dish of meat or vegetable broth (better than meat) for lunch and dinner, without oil or other seasonings, degreased, possibly not from nut.
3. This must be done for three non-consecutive days.

These days there is no physical activity, which is recommended on the days when you eat normally.

Results of the method.

According to the researchers, the following results are obtained with this method.

1. Decreases hunger on non-diet days.
2. You lose a pound a week without being forced to a low-calorie diet 7 days a week.
3. You do not regain weight as long as you do intermittent fasting for one or two non-consecutive days a week.