You've heard of Dukan, scoffed fat on Atkins, fainted from drinking only honey and lemon water and lost friends from the noxious side-effects of the cabbage diet. Now there's a new one, this time designed to inspire jealousy and help you to "get skinnier than all your friends". Six Weeks to OMG comes out in print next month. It has knocked the Dukan Diet off the top of the iTunes diet book chart and a subsidiary of Penguin has bought it for a seven-figure sum.
The book, by British sports scientist and personal trainer Paul Khanna, who goes by the pen name Venice A Fulton, offers controversial tips, such as skip breakfast, take cold baths and drink black coffee. But for short-term weight loss, can the OMG diet really help you shed pounds? Consultant Dietitian and Sports Nutritionist Linia Patel, Dr Christian Jessen, the presenter of the Bafta award-winning Embarrassing Bodies series, and the celebrity fitness trainer Jay Darrell Ingleton explain the science behind Fulton's unconventional theories. I've also given Fulton's tips a try, in a (highly unscientific) experiment, to see how tough they are to stick to.
Skip breakfast
Fulton says skipping breakfast will help to stop you becoming a "fadult" (that's a fat adult to you and me). "Breakfast is for wimps!", he writes. He recommends exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and then only eating once three hours have passed, so that your body is forced to burn stored fat rather than food.
The expert view: "Skipping breakfast is a weight-loss disaster," says Patel. "When you wake up your body produces cortisol, a stress hormone that helps store fat. If you don't eat, you are putting your body under more strain and stress and therefore more likely to gain weight around the middle. Also, you will want sugary and fatty things when you're really hungry, which add to weight gain."
My experience: I skipped breakfast and still had enough energy to run up the stairs on the underground (my "workout"). It didn't affect my concentration and I ate breakfast at 10am. It was easy, but I consumed exactly the same amount that I usually eat, so I doubt it made much impact on my weight.
Drink black coffee before exercise
Read the rest here:
After the Dukan, get the skinny on the OMG diet
