How to Lose Weight Well returns with a new series tonight (Tuesday January 5 2021), and looks at the apparent success of celeb diets, including that of Adele. But what is the Sirtfood diet?
The Channel 4 documentary investigates some of the most popular diets on the market right now – the Sirtfood, the Mayr Method, and fasting, including the holistic Bodhimaya method.
Here’s everything you need to know…
Read more: The Great on Channel 4: Which bits of the drama with Nicholas Hoult are actually true?
How to Lose Weight Well, episode one
In episode one of series six, Dr Helen Lawal and Dr Javid Abdelmoneim return to navigate the most popular diets on the market.
A pair of sisters road test the Sirtfood diet, as favoured by Adele, and the Mayr Method, as reportedly used by shrinking Australian actress Rebel Wilson.
Meanwhile, friends Temi and Bose try out intermittent fasting, including the holistic Bodhimaya method.
Others contrast yoga and cardio exercise.
What is the Sirtfood diet?
Singer Adele is said to credit the Sirtfood diet with her weight loss, after allegedly losing seven stone.
The diet is perhaps most famous for allowing those following it to have red wine and chocolate.
In fact, one could say the regime actively encourages it!
Read more: Maltesers Cake Bars: New launch set to ruin Brits’ New Year diet resolutions
What is a sirtfood?
A sirtfood is a food high in sirtuin activators.
Sirtuins are a type of protein which protect the cells in our bodies from dying or becoming inflamed through illness.
Red wine and dark chocolate both happen to be high in sirtuin activators…
What can you eat on the Sirtfood Diet?
The Sirtfood Diet plan focuses on upping your intake of healthy sirtfoods. These include apples, blueberries, buckwheat, capers, citrus fruits, dates, kale, turmeric and walnuts – and many more!
Another top sirtfood is coffee.
Countries where people already consume a vast number of sirtfoods include Japan and Italy, which are both regularly ranked among the world’s healthiest countries.
Week one on the diet plan encourages you to limit your intake to 1000 calories a day and to drink three sirtfood green juices a day.
It also tells you to eat one sirtfood-rich meal a day.
Authors and health consultants Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten insist the focus is on healthy eating rather than weight loss.
What is the Mayr Method?
The Mayr Method diet was devised by Dr. Franz Xaver Mayr.
He believed that everything is connected to the gut, and what we eat can affect our overall health and wellbeing.
The late doctor believed that most people are poisoning their digestive systems with the foods they eat and how they eat them.
Followers of the diet plan are told to eliminate snacking, reduce gluten and dairy intake and change how they chew their food.
The diet doesn’t restrict calories, but followers are told to eat slowly, stop eating when satisfied and drink between meals but not with meals.
The plan also advises to eat the biggest meal of the day at breakfast, have a smaller meal at lunch and the smallest meal at dinner.
No raw foods are allowed after 3pm.
Detoxing and fasting are also part of the plan.
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Bodhimaya intermittent fasting
Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for various meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting and non-fasting over a given period.
Three methods of intermittent fasting are alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and daily time-restricted feeding.
The 5:2 diet is possibly the most famous of the intermittent fasting plans.
It involves eating normally for five days of the week while restricting your calorie intake to 500–600 for two days of the week.
The Bodhimaya method is a holistic approach, which can be “tailor made” for you.
It can include juice fasting, broth fasting, intermittent fasting and calorie restriction.
How to Lose Weight Well airs on C4 at 8pm on Tuesday January 5 2021.
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