Crash diets 'may reduce lifespan'

Maybe. This is not what they studied.

"Scottish scientists have found that binge eating and crash dieting may significantly reduce life expectancy.

Researchers from Glasgow University observed that fish given a "binge then diet" food regime had a reduced lifespan of up to 25%."

Binging and crashing are different from just being fat and dieting, even extreme dieting.

"'However, on average their lifespan was three-quarters that of animals eating a constant amount every day.'

The research found that the difference in lifespan was not a consequence of more rapid ageing but an increase in the risk of sudden death.

'But it would be for extreme switches in diet. Just skipping lunches would not have any effect, but if they had several weeks of one diet followed by several weeks of the extreme opposite, then there could be an effect.'"

This is not quite sensible, but on the road there.

There are yo-yo dieters who succeed apparently without life expectancy risks.

Bodybuilders are an example.

Yet, as I proposed years ago, the yo-yo dieter who fails is the usual binge and crash dieter who overeats and overfattens their body, then tries an expert diet (which are all starvation diets), fails, then overeats and overfattens themselves further.

Big, fat bottom line: following any expert diet will certainly fail you and will certainly result in some loss of your life according to what we now know.

Don't follow them.

Fight them.

And lose weight properly.