Dr. Michael Mosley - The Fast 800 How to Combine Rapid Weight Loss and Intermittent Fasting for Long-Term Health

I first became interested in intermittent fasting when I discovered, through a random blood test, that I had type 2 diabetes. The doctor said that I needed to go on medication. This was a nasty shock because my overweight dad had developed diabetes in his fifties and died of diabetes-related illnesses at the relatively young age of 74. I didnt want to go down the same path.

So I set out to find out if there was a drug-free way to cure my diabetes, and thats when I first heard about the idea of periodically fasting for both weight loss and better general health. It sounded so interesting that I persuaded the BBC to let me make a science documentary about it called Eat, Fast, Live Longer, with myself as the guinea pig.

I tested a number of different forms of intermittent fasting before settling on the 5:2. Using that approach, I managed to lose 9kg and get my blood sugars back to normal, without medication.

Then, a few years later, I came across some startling new research being carried out by Professor Roy Taylor, a diabetes specialist at Newcastle University. He told me the main reason I had managed to knock my diabetes on the head was that I had lost a lot of weight, fast. He had done studies showing that, if you lose over 10% of your body weight (which I had), the fat is drained from your liver and pancreas, and your body is restored to its former health.

When we first met, Roy had just started a big trial, hoping to prove that an 800-calorie-a-day rapid weight loss diet would not only lead to massive weight loss but also help most patients with type 2 diabetes come off all medication and restore their blood sugars to normal.

This was revolutionary stuff, as most doctors believe that type 2 diabetes is incurable and the only way to treat it is with drugs.

I became so convinced by Roys research that, with his help, I wrote a second book, The 8-Week Blood Sugar Diet. In this book, which is aimed at people with type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes (those whose blood sugars are raised but not yet in the diabetic range), I described how to follow a rapid weight loss programme, cutting your calorie intake to 800 a day. This book also became an international bestseller, and thousands of people who followed the programme have managed to get their blood sugars back under control without medication. Doctors, nurses and diabetes specialists now recommend the book in clinical practice. My wife, Clare, is a GP and has been using this approach to transform the lives of hundreds of her patients. One patient lost so much weight Clare didnt recognise him! She is passionate about the power of food to change lives and created the recipes for this book.