5:2 Diet: A Good Tool against Weight Loss & Diabetes

Lisa Franchi June 17, 2016

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A popular fasting diet, called 5:2 diet, was first introduced in 2012 in the BBC2 television Horizon documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer, written and presented by Michael Mosley. It involves calorie restriction for two non-consecutive days a week and unconstrained eating the other five day. And because it doesn’t only promote weight loss but also longevity, as what researchers claim, it has received media attention and celebrity endorsements since then. 

Now, a new study carried out by the University of South Australia found that the 5.2 diet may not only result to significant improvement in weight loss but also a significant reduction of blood glucose level. 

The findings can have potential benefit for people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), according to the researchers. 

"One of the major struggles with weight loss is people’s ability to stick to a daily-restricted calorie diet," said Sharayah Carter, a PhD candidate at the University of South Australia. "On top of that, people with T2DM have medication to consider. A person with diabetes is not going to be able to take the same amount of medication on those two days because they’re not eating enough food to support that medication.” 

"What we found was that two days of severe energy restriction basically achieves similar results to a daily restriction diet." 

Their study tested the effects of a two-day intermittent energy restriction (IER) diet with 5-days of habitual eating for people with T2DM. This was compared to a daily restricted diet. The standard calorie restriction diet consisted of 1200 calories a day for women and 1500 calories for men. All participants were asked to walk an extra 2000 steps per day to increase their level of exercise. 

The results showed that while the IER diet has less of an impact on lifestyle and medication, both diets achieved similar reductions on weight and in haemoglobin A1C levels. 

5:2 diet involves heavy calorie restricting for two days (inconsecutive) - 500 calories for women and 600 calories for men.  

"We achieved a 0.6 per cent drop in HbA1c in both groups which was a significant drop in that time frame and importantly all our participants who were on medication reduced their dosages which is important for both the individual and the health budget.” Carter said. 

Type 2 diabetes is a leading medical condition in the UK and elsewhere. Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for the majority of diabetes cases, is a progressive condition in which the body becomes resistant to the normal effects of insulin and/or gradually loses the capacity to produce enough insulin in the pancreas. Its cause remains unknown. Findings such as these can provide better perspective to doctors and patients alike in terms of fighting and preventing the disease. 

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Study finds 5:2 diet is useful weapon in fight against diabetes