Martin Clunes has shed an impressive three stone in just three months, crediting his success to a particular dieting method. The 63 year old actor previously discussed his significant weight loss journey with MailOnline, attributing the change to the ‘5:2 diet’.
“I was fat and while I was getting heavy, I had tired knees and stuff,” the beloved Doc Martin actor shared. “So I thought I’d try that diet and the weight came off.”
The ‘5:2 diet’, also known as The Fast Diet, is an intermittent fasting regimen made famous by the late television doctor Michael Mosley. It entails eating normally for five days of the week and then significantly reducing calorie intake on the remaining two days.
These reduced-calorie days are considered ‘fasting’ days, with women typically consuming around 500 calories and men about 600 calories. Healthline experts suggest: “You can choose whichever two days of the week you prefer, as long as there is at least one non-fasting day in between them.”
“A popular approach is to fast on Mondays and Thursdays with two or three small meals, then eat normally for the rest of the week.”, reports the Mirror.
Clunes also praised the diet’s cholesterol-lowering benefits but mentioned he later modified his routine to include 6:1 fasting days.
BirminghamLive has highlighted that A-listers such as Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch and Jennifer Aniston have previously endorsed similar fasting diets. “It’s easy and seems to keep the weight off me,” Martin commented in a 2017 discussion.
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Not just celebrities, but also inhabitants of the world’s rare ‘Blue Zones’ – where people reportedly often live to be centenarians – limit their calorie intake as part of a strict regimen known as the ‘80% trick’. This involves consuming only one modest meal later in the day, but deliberately stopping when they feel 80% full, hence the name of this rule.
Dr Deborah Lee, a GP at Dr Fox Pharmacy, previously shared with the Mirror: “Imagine what 80% of your meal would look like, and aim to leave 20% behind.”
“Calorie restriction is believed to slow the ageing process. Eating less lowers the metabolic rate. With fewer metabolic processes underway, there is less oxidation occurring. Oxidative stress likely underpins the development of many of the chronic diseases we see today heart disease, cancer, type-2 diabetes and dementia.”
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