Fasting before starting a new diet can help you get better results

A new study shows that fasting for five days before starting a new diet can help set the stage for a person’s body transformation.

Period of restricted food intake leads to major changes in the immune system and the gut microbiome, which enhances the weight loss benefits.
The researchers showed in the study that people who fast before starting a diet, similar to the Mediterranean diet for three months, lose more weight and have a lower body mass index than those who do not, and they also notice a decrease in their blood pressure.

“Switching to a healthy diet has a positive effect on blood pressure. If diet is preceded by fasting, then this effect increases in intensity,” says Andras Mayfield, lead author of the study from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) in Berlin.

And researchers from Germany have recruited 71 people with metabolic syndrome, which is the name for the condition suffered by those who suffer from diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure as well.

They were all put into a diet plan called DASH (The Dietary Approach to Stop High Blood Pressure) by a team of experts for a period of three months.

The DASH diet is centered around the popular Mediterranean diet and includes fruits, vegetables, whole grain products, nuts and legumes, fish and lean white meats.

But half of the study participants were instructed to fast for five days before the new regimen began.

The main finding, the researchers say, is the long-term effect of fasting on lowering blood pressure from high levels.
And nearly half of the people who were in the fasting group (43%) were able to reduce their previously prescribed medications for high blood pressure. For non-fasting people, this figure was only 17%.

Also, those who fasted lost more weight than those who did not fast but followed the same diet.

The BMI in the fasting group decreased from about 34 to 32 in three months, which is a statistically significant decrease.

For the non-fasting group, there was no significant difference in either scale.

The immune system response and the gut microbiome were closely monitored with blood tests and stool samples, respectively, as were people who were weighed regularly.

The results revealed that during fasting, the production of beneficial gut bacteria that break down the fibers to produce anti-inflammatory chemicals increases.

Other changes help reduce high blood pressure as the number of good bacteria multiplies quickly.

The researchers found that even after the five-day fasting period ended and the person started eating solid foods again, the positive changes remained.

Dr Dominic Muller, co-author of the study, explains: “Body mass index, blood pressure and the need for antihypertensive drugs remained lower in the long term among volunteers who started a healthy diet with fasting for five days.

Source: Daily Mail