Have you ever noticed that every month seems to bring a trendy new diet and yet

obesity rates continue to rise and with it a growing number of health problems.

That's why I wrote my new book How Not To Diet.

Check it out at your local public library.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today we feature part three of our series on fasting.

Starting with a question, is fasting beneficial for weight loss?

Let's find out.

Fasting obviously causes consistent dramatic weight loss, but how do fasted individuals

do long-term?

Some research groups reported extremely disappointing results.

Here's what they saw.

Average subjects started out at about 270 pounds and in the six months before the fast

continued to gain weight as so be's persons tend to do.

And after 24 days of what they called inpatient starvation, a dramatic 27 pound weight loss.

Then what do you think happened?

They gained it all back and more.

In another study with falls ranging up to 50 months, only four out of 25 so-called super-obese

patients achieved even partial sustained success.

Based on these kinds of data, some investigators concluded that complete starvation is of no

value in the long-term treatment of obese patients.

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