The FastDay Forum

http://www.weightymatters.ca/ (scroll down past the laughing and very cute baby).

Accessed through the above site. If anyone has access it would be great to see the whole article in it's original form.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1208051 (Original form, but no access)

http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comment ... t_obesity/ has a link to a downloadable pdf

Thanks PhilT

Thank you shell and Phil, interesting! The article considers some widely-held and repeated myths about obesity (myths because they are not true), some widely-held presumptions (which are unproven), and some (proven) truths .

I particularly enjoyed myth 7, shame it isn't true!

I was surprised presumption 5 is unproven (that snacking contributes to weight gain).

I was also surprised (disappointed?) about truth 2 - 'Diets (i.e., reduced energy intake) very effectively reduce weight, but trying to go on a diet or recommending that someone go on a diet generally does not work well in the long-term'. Their explanation is perhaps more helpful: '...energy reduction is the ultimate dietary intervention required and [other] approaches are likely to help only if accompanied by [this]'

Maybe we need to stop talking about 52 as a diet and focus on it as lifestyle?

Hi dominic

I agree that we should consider 5.2 as a lifestyle choice. Diets do not work, they are short term and only those that pedal these diets win in the end.

I intend (notice I say 'intend') to do this for the rest of my life; hopefully switching to 6.1 if I reach my target weight.

I'm a very jaded dieter and swore never to do another one. For me, this is not a diet, but a tool to get myself slim or slimmer and stay there for optimal health.

Maybe we need to stop talking about 52 as a diet and focus on it as lifestyle?

100% agree with that statement - I prefer not to think of it as a diet. Diets have made me fat. 5:2 way of eating is a lifestyle which will help me to regulate my weight and bring lots of other health benefits! Well that is what I am hoping anyway )

I so agree with this I too have been "playing" the diet game for 40 years now and am determined that this is a way of life not a diet Would go so far as to say think its a great shame hat he book is called The Fast Diet but cynical me guess that the publishers felt the diet word was necessary for assured sales !!

[Tracieknits]

This was an interesting comment about the study.

"I think it’s weird. I don’t get it," said Marion Nestle of New York University. "I can’t understand the point of the paper unless it’s to say that the only things that work are drugs, bariatric surgery, and meal replacements, all of which are made by companies with financial ties to the authors. " She noted that the researchers who signed the paper also provided a long list of companies they have been paid to work with.