The FastDay Forum

Zoe Harcombe offers a very good critique of the Horizon TV programme about the 5:2 Diet.

She is astute and her comments are to the point. Download them here: Intermittent Fasting – The facts

After reading her report I didn't expect great success. I also understood that I may soon stop losing weight because my body will achieve some kind of equilibrium.

Zoe Harcombe asks lots of relevant questions about dieting in her search for the truth.

The report expresses doubts about the efficacy of the 5:2 diet. I think she would be interested in this web site...

[Moogie]

I've just had a little skim through, no time to read properly right now as visitors coming soon, but it seems to me this lady has got the wrong idea about the 'live longer' part. I thought MM's meaning was more that you would have a better quality of life for longer, ie less likely to be struck down by an illness/condition which would negatively impact the way you live. In essence, live an active/healthy life for longer, rather than simply being alive. I'm sure somewhere MM has said it's more about staying as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

To be honest I always thought the diet was about life extension. That's why I started on it. I figured losing weight might be a plus...

It is very good to think that the diet gives a better quality of life for longer too.

Good point. Thank you.

She does have competing books to sell I guess. But I had a read at it anyway...

Not sure she "gets" TV at all, with multiple "Has it been proven that..." questions. No, it was neither a Court of Law or a clinical trial, it was a TV documentary, nothing was proven or disproven.

In challenging that "The fact remains that there has not yet been a long-­term, randomized clinical trial of CR or IF in humans" she doesn't define "long-term" other than by pointing out that the Minnesota Starvation experiments were "only" 24 weeks and therefore not long term. The CALERIE study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20923909 says "An intensive dietary and behavioral intervention was developed to achieve 25% CR and sustain it over the 2 years." but perhaps that isn't long enough either.

(Where's the long term RCT of the Harcombe Diet, I wonder....)

I don't think Zoe gets TV or the point of the Mosley's program.

I think that 5:2 started as a way to a better/healthier life. The weight loss is a bonus.

Meanwhile I found some long term CR stuff if anyone's interested...

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/107 - Review paper, which led me to...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16720655
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15096581
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16412867

and that's without the Biosphere papers.

[carorees]

Losing weight for anyone overweight is likely to increase life expectancy and quality of life. Separating the weight loss from the health benefits is pretty hard.

Some studies have attempted it and found reductions in IGF1 and other surrogate markers of health in people fasting. Again short term though.

Losing weight for anyone overweight is likely to increase life expectancy and quality of life. Separating the weight loss from the health benefits is pretty hard.

Some studies have attempted it and found reductions in IGF1 and other surrogate markers of health in people fasting. Again short term though.

This is partly because humans live a long time. It would be very difficult to conduct a study that was 75 to 120 years long!

[carorees]

But mostly because weight loss has such a huge effect on health. Since fasting causes weight loss even the surrogate markers show improvements from that alone. Finding out the changes that are independent of the weight loss is extremely hard.

I read about a third of her 'report' and then lost the will to read on. Her comments are disingenuous (often bordering on stating the obvious) and she has a transparent agenda - to sell her own diet.

I would enthusiastically welcome an intelligent critique on 5:2, but this is not it.

I read the article, and I'm definitely not impressed.

I've lost 7.5 lbs. in the 4 weeks I've been on 5:2. I am thrilled. One would think she could muster up a little more enthusiasm for a plan that people are losing weight on and improving their health on.

I keep hearing that research on intermittent fasting is in its "infancy." That may be, but with all the research and studies on obesity by the "experts" the last 50 years...we are all still fat. Why not embrace a concept that is actually working for a lot of us?

As an American, don't know much about her except she has a few books out and agree with the "competing interest" remark. ...just went on amazon and yes, she does have her own diet book "The Hercombe Diet"...of course she'll be lukewarm toward anything else!

Sorry, I did download it, I started reading it but it was soooooooooooooooo boring...

I read this soon after she posted it on her web site. I often dip into her website and am interested in what she is trying to achieve which is to get Western Goverments to recognise what is causing the obesity epidemic and change their dietry advice. Reading her de-bunking of diet myths helped me get my head around why my diets kept failing and put me on the road to recovery I am now hopefully on. I do not follow her diet, to much like food combining, but I do believe in a lot of her reasoning and that of other like minded people like Dr John Briffa. So what if they have books to sell, without their publications I would be carrying on believing our Goverment guidelines and getting ill and fatter. Zoe did thank 'Mr' Mosley at the end for keeping us thinking and I believe she will keep an open mind but this was more about Intermittent fasting and not 5:2 as we know it. I am not nerdy just a lifetime dieter who she has helped come to terms with food, so please don't dismiss her on the strength of this publication. Zoe Harcombe admits to having an eating disorder in her youth and skipping meals will ring alarm bells for her.

so please don't dismiss her on the strength of this publication. Zoe Harcombe admits to having an eating disorder in her youth and skipping meals will ring alarm bells for her

that's fair enough but she should declare her competing interests and any prejudice so that nobody runs off with the idea that it's an objective assessment.

It was also as boring as hell so her writing and influencing style needs some work