Comedian Jimmy Kimmel lost 25 pounds in 2014 and has maintained his weight loss with intermittent fasting, otherwise known as the 5:2 Diet.
The 6-foot-1 Kimmel slimmed down from 208 to 182 pounds and stays thin without exercise by eating whatever he wants 5 days a week and then consuming just 500 calories the other two days.
“On Monday and Thursday, I eat fewer than 500 calories a day, then I eat like a pig for the other five days,” Kimmel told Men’s Journal. “It’s helped me stay at 182 pounds. It sounds hard, but you get used to it.”
Jimmy stays thin without exercise with IF. “The only physical activity I enjoy is masturbating,” Kimmel joked. “You can work out, and that’s great, but if you really want to lose weight, you have to eat less.”
Jimmy’s intermittent fasting plan was popularized in the book The Fast Diet (also known as the 5:2 diet), which has helped thousands of people rapidly shed dramatic amounts of weight.
Another popular IF plan is the “Every Other Day Diet,” where you alternate every other day between fasting and regular eating.
While most people think dieters overeat on their “feasting” days, this rarely happens, said Dr. Krista Varady, author of the Every Other Day Diet.
Research shows people who do intermittent fasting lose weight more quickly and keep it off longer than those who follow conventional, linear diets where you’re constantly depriving yourself.
What’s more, IF has been shown to ward off diseases like cancer and dementia, as Celebrity Health Fitness previously reported. Aside from weight loss, regularly experiencing hunger has many disease-fighting benefits, say researchers.
While most people do intermittent fasting to lose weight, research from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) suggests intermittent fasting can also improve brain functioning, and help maintain lean muscle mass, Examiner reported.
“Just as exercise makes muscles stronger, fasting makes the brain stronger,” Dr. Mark Mattson, chief of the NIA’s neurosciences lab, told the Wall Street Journal. Mattson said the chemicals produced by fasting also appear to boost people’s mood.
Intermittent fasting also helped the animals maintain their lean muscle mass even as they aged — the exact opposite of what happens to both animals and people as they get older.
Actor Hugh Jackman has credited IF for helping him achieve his rippling Wolverine body, as Celebrity Health Fitness has reported.
Jackman said IF also gave him more energy and improved his sleep. Jackman said he was inspired to follow intermittent fasting after reading The 8-Hour Diet by David Zinczenko, the former editor-in-chief of Men’s Health.
Hugh’s 16/8 intermittent fasting protocol involves doing all his eating for the day during an 8-hour window and then not eating at all (except for water) for 16 hours.
Jackman typically consumes all his calories between 10 am and 6 pm. It’s an eating plan he follows even when he’s not training for a role.
Related: Intermittent fasting promotes weight loss and longevity