Get into your skinny genes

The mystery is over – it seems the 5:2 diet does not work by simply restricting our overall calories after all. As I suspected IGF-1 has a part to play and - in the words of Patrick Holford whose new book Burn Fat Fast was published last week – it ‘switches on the genes that stop you burning fat’. Hence when we lower levels of IGF-1, which is what happens when we fast, we switch off these fat storing genes and speed up our body's fat burning action.

Holford goes one step further than the 5:2 diet. He combines alternate day fasting with the low GL diet and an exercise regime that one case study – a doctor - claims helped her shift 12 pounds in four weeks.

Alternate day fasting does, of course, require far more effort than the 5:2 – simply because any social and work life that involves eating must fit around three or four days of fasting and not just two days a week. To make it easier, Holford’s regime allows a higher calorie in take on the fast days  - more like 800 calories, or 50% of a normal day’s intake. But the meals and snacks – appetising as they are – are designed to be cooked at home, and so I can imagine I would have more trouble sticking to this routine while also trying to maintain the life I love of meeting friends and colleagues for lovely lunches. Plus, on the “feast days”, you will have to eat even more mindfully than on the straight 5:2, making sure your diet is still low GL...

There are some great recipes in this little book, however, and, because your calorie allowance is higher than that of the 5:2, there is more scope to eat well most days.

After reading that butter beans are a filling low cal choice, I had been wondering whether a home made pate of tuna and butter beans (my invention) would be something I’d want to eat, or would have to throw away. I haven’t tried it yet, but Holford has a similar pate of smoked salmon and cannellini beans – so the tuna and butter beans will probably work and I think they will be lower in calories too. I will test it out later this week and post the recipe I rate it as a success.