Authors: Michael Mosley,Mimi Spencer
The Fast Diet: The secret of intermittent fasting � lose weight, stay healthy, live longer (14 page)
Breakfast
288 calories
2 poached eggs (180 calories) on a slice of wholemeal toast (31g, 78 calories)
30 raspberries (120g, 30 calories)
Dinner
304 calories
Roast salmon:
place a 140g salmon fillet (252 calories) with 10 cherry tomatoes (150g, 27 calories) on the vine on a baking tray. Bake at 200oc for about 15–20 minutes until the fish is cooked. Serve with a generous 112g helping of green beans (25 calories)
Daily total – 592 calories
Breakfast
298 calories
Simple muesli:
Mix 50g oats (201 calories) with a grated apple (100g, 47 calories). Cover with skimmed milk (150ml, 50 calories)
Dinner
295 calories
No-carb caesar salad:
grill 2 slices of parma ham (34g, 76 calories) for 4-5 minutes, turning once, until crispy. Slice 1 chicken breast (140g, 148 calories) into two. Grill for about 3–4 minutes each side or until cooked. Cut into pieces and place on a substantial bed of 100g chopped cos lettuce (16 calories). Serve with 1 tbsp grated Parmesan (45 calories), and 1 tbsp reduced-calorie Caesar salad dressing (15g, 10 calories –eg Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself). Crumble the grilled Parma ham over the top
Daily total – 593 calories
Breakfast
330 calories
100g grilled kipper (280 calories)
2 tangerines (50 calories)
Dinner
264 calories
Marinated steak and Asian cabbage salad:
Marinate a piece of sirloin steak (90g, 120 calories) in a mixture of soy, the juice of 1 lime and crushed garlic. Grill until cooked, turning once. Serve with Asian cabbage salad: combine 1 grated carrot (80g, 28 calories) with 90g Savoy cabbage (24 calories) cut into thin strips, and a handful of coriander (1 calorie).
For dressing
, mix 1 tsp sugar (16 calories) with 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce (10 calories), the juice of 1 lime (2 calories), a crushed clove garlic (3 calories). Pour over salad and top with 10g chopped roasted, unsalted peanuts (60 calories)
Daily total – 594 calories
Breakfast
177 calories
2 lean grilled rashers of bacon (50g, 107 calories)
1 small sausage (20g, 59 calories)
1 small grilled portobello mushroom (20g, 3 calories)
A generous handful of spinach (30g, 8 calories)
Dinner
415 calories
Roast mackerel and vegetables:
place a mackerel fillet (147g, 351 calories) on top of 2 sliced tomatoes (170g, 30 calories). Wrap in foil and roast in a hot oven for 10–15 minutes or until fish is done. Serve with a big pile of tenderstem broccoli (100g, 33 calories) dressed with the juice of half a lemon (1 calorie) and salt
Daily total – 592 calories
Breakfast
271 calories
Small pot of natural fat-free yoghurt (150g, 62 calories)
1 chopped banana (100g, 95 calories)
Six strawberries (72g, 20 calories)
100g blueberries (100g, 25 calories)
Four almonds, chopped (8g, 69 calories)
Dinner
320 calories
Prawn, watercress and avocado salad:
mix 28g watercress (6 calories) with 140g cooked prawns (139 calories), half an avocado (72g, 137 calories), half a red onion (30g, 11 calories) chopped and 1 tbsp capers (2 calories). Dress with white wine vinegar
1 tangerine (25 calories)
Daily total – 591 calories
Breakfast
261 calories
Scrambled eggs:
add a splash of skimmed milk (15ml, 5 calories) to 2 beaten eggs (180 calories) and scramble in a non-stick pan. Serve with one very small piece of Parma ham (34g, 76 calories)
Dinner
326 calories
Spiced dhal:
in 1 tsp olive oil (27 calories), fry a finely chopped small onion (60g, 22 calories), a clove of crushed garlic (3 calories) and 1 tsp finely chopped ginger (3 calories). Cook for 5 minutes. Add half a pint of water, 50g dried, washed red lentils (159 calories), a pinch of cumin, coriander, turmeric, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Boil for 20 mins or until lentils are tender. Garnish with 2 tbsn of fat-free natural yogurt (40 calories). Serve with 2 poppadoms (72 calories)
Daily total – 587 calories
Breakfast
331 calories
2 boiled eggs (180 calories)
5 asparagus spears (125g, 33 calories), to dip
1 slice wholemeal toast (31g, 78 calories)
2 plums (110g, 40 calories)
Dinner
256 calories
Thai steak salad:
grill a sirloin steak (140g, 188 calories) on both sides until cooked, and slice very thin. Serve on a big pile of shredded lettuce (100g, 14 calories), and 100g shredded Savoy cabbage (24 calories). Serve with this dressing: juice of 1 lime (1 calorie), 1 tsp sugar (16 calories), a crushed clove of garlic (3 calories), a chopped, deseeded chilli (1 calorie) and 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce (10 calories)
Daily total – 588 calories
Breakfast
214 calories
Smoked salmon (150g, 213 calories)
Lemon wedges to serve (1 calorie)
Dinner
383 calories
Roast pork:
serve 150g lean roast pork (289 calories) with cauliflower (50g, 17 calories) and broccoli (50g, 17 calories). Drizzle with 1 tbsp meat juices (60 calories)
Daily total – 597 calories
Breakfast
206 calories
1 small 150g pot of fat-free, natural yoghurt (62 calories)
1 chopped banana (100g, 96 calories)
1 tbsp sugar-free muesli, not granola, stirred through (15g, 48 calories)
Dinner
386 calories
Bacon & butterbean soup:
fry two rashers of bacon (54g, 116 calories) in 1 tsp olive oil (27 calories) for 2 minutes. Add half a small finely chopped onion (30g, 11 calories), half a chopped leek (50g, 11 calories), half a finely sliced carrot (40g, 14 calories), and 1 diced stalk of celery (1 calorie). Cook for 5 minutes, adding a splash of water if it sticks. Add half a can of butterbeans (200g, 206 calories) and half a pint of water (250ml) and simmer for 20 minutes. Season. Blend until desired consistency, or simply mash for chunkier texture
Daily total – 592 calories
Menu plans by Sarah Maber
‘The Fast Diet looks like a wonderful way of optimising our wellbeing, our longevity, and a great way to lose weight too. As you say, it is so much more than “just a diet”, it is really a whole lifestyle, and importantly, one that can be followed with relative ease. I have several patients who have started to successfully follow the diet and think it is wonderful. I have also incorporated it into my own lifestyle, as have two other GP colleagues and several members of staff. Huge congratulations on a life-changing broadcast.’
Dr Pete Bridgwood
‘I watched your
Horizon
programme
Eat, Fast, Live Longer
with some interest and my family and I decided to try the diet that you suggested. I am a GP in my 50s working in north London. My BMI was 29, but I am otherwise healthy, though I do very little exercise. I was somewhat sceptical initially but have managed to lose 6kg in six weeks and find the diet very simple and easy to follow. I can see no reason why I would not continue in this way for many years.
I have presented a summary of your programme to a few colleagues and have started to recommend it to some of my patients with startling results.
One particular patient, who obviously has metabolic syndrome and a family history of type 2 diabetes, had a fasting glucose of 7.2. After only a few weeks, his fasting glucose dropped to 5.9 and he lost 5kg in weight.
I would like to spread the word even further and wondered if you had plans to design a simple leaflet or website that I could either give to my patients or direct them to view on the Internet. I have difficulty explaining the diet in the short time at the end of one of my
ten-minute
consultations. I think that this type of manageable eating plan is likely to be so much more successful in managing the obesity epidemic than the current plans to “traffic light” and give fat and sugar contents on food packaging. I think it would be so much more useful to emphasise the calorie content of foods.’
Dr Jon Brewerton
‘I have been on IF now for the last 14 weeks. I have lost 9.4lb and 9.5 inches. On previous diets I have never got below 140lb (ten stone).
| | Start weight | 145.6lb | |
| | Current weight | 136.4lb | |
| | Height | 5’6” | |
| | Inch loss: | | |
| | Bust | 1.25” | |
| | Midriff | 0.5” | |
| | Waist | 1.75” | |
| | Abdomen | 2.5” | |
| | Hips 2.5” | Thighs 0.5” | |
| | from each leg | | |
Improvements other than weight loss: eyes look brighter and clearer. More energy. Sleeping better. Clearer head and better mental clarity (although not tested, I feel that I can remember things more easily). Feel healthy.’
Sarah H
‘A busy mum with three children, I was finding losing weight after having my youngest child really difficult. It didn’t help being constantly surrounded by food and snacks, preparing three, sometimes four, meals a day for the family. I enjoy food and socialising, so restrictive diets just felt like a chore and a battle of will-power every day, so it was never long before I was back to square one.
The Fast Diet, for me, is a more manageable way to lose weight both physically and emotionally, as it’s only two days a week of “being good” and sticking to 500 calories. It also fits beautifully around my social life, as the fast days can be flexible, so I make sure it’s a feast day when I’m out for drinks or meals.
It’s also not actually that hard to resist temptation for
one day, as I know that the next day I can have a donut or a curry and a few glasses of wine if I really want; and when I do, I enjoy it even more without feeling guilty.
The proof is, literally, in the pudding; I have been eating and enjoying them on feast days, but sticking to 500 calories on fast days, and I am still losing weight. This works.’
Clare Wilson
‘Yesterday I ate really well as, although I can eat what I like, I’m also thinking that I don’t want to undo all my hard work. So I did have a bag of crisps, and I did have pork and apple sausages in cider for tea with one of my daughter’s homemade lemon pies afterwards, but I didn’t have the ton of crap I normally have in between.
I don’t think I find the fast days too hard because of the relatively short tunnel and there being light at the end of it. Looking forward to a weekend of eating normally though!
I think part of what this plan is getting at is that we need to learn it’s OK to feel hungry, and in fact it is an essential part of being slim. I speak as a lifelong overeater – the FULL feeling is so normal for me and I had some weird fear about feeling hungry.
Well, guess what? It’s not the end of the world. I live in a city with stores everywhere – I can have food at any moment I want, so hunger isn’t a sign I’m about to perish or get weak.
During the last couple of months, I’ve been learning to
embrace feeling hungry and being comfortable with that – it’s a sign from my body to eat again soon (and hopefully that it is burning fat now), not a sign to be feared.
It’s OK to feel hungry. Immediate death from starvation will not occur.’