Fasting and specifically intermittant fasting has grown in popularity recently, favoured by many trying to lose weight and particularly loved by many people in the tech industry, such as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
The practice itself has drawn much criticism, but now a study claims that the "caveman" diet of feasting and fasting may be the secret to losing weight.
A trial carried out by scientists at the University of Graz in Austria showed that people who ate no food whatsoever for 36 hours and then followed that by eating whatever they wanted for 12 hours lost more than half a stone in a month, reports Henry Bodkin in The Telegraph.
Arguably most interesting about this, their immune systems stayed stable even after six months of the practice, in comparison with many diets that promote calorie restriction each day.
The scientists behind the study believe that the success of alternate-day fasting (ADF) may be due to how it mimics how hunter-gatherers ate thousands of years ago when food was more scarce. That said, this is only one study on a smaller group of people, so more research would be needed.
Taking 60 participants on board, the scientists split them into either an ADF group who fasted or a control group, which was allowed to eat whatever they wanted.
The team observed that when the ADR were allowed to eat whatever they wanted, they ate normally, as opposed to loading up on extra food.
Overall, they reached an average calorie restriction of around 35pc and lost an average of 3.5kg after four weeks.
"Why exactly calorie restriction and fasting induce so many beneficial effects is not fully clear yet," said Prof Thomas Pieber, head of endocrinology at the Medical University of Graz.
Prof Frank Madeo, his colleague, added: "Our physiology is familiar with periods of starvation followed by food excesses."
