People who follow fad diets burn up to 15,000 calories a day just telling their friends and family about it, new research has found.
Experts have discovered that it is not actually the diet itself that leads to weight loss, but the energy used in explaining it to everyone the dieter comes into contact with.
“Fasting between 7:30 and 4:40 on the 5th and 19th day of every month won’t lead to any weight loss at all. But banging on about it to your colleagues for hours on end might,” nutritionist Deborah Wallace said.
She said the extra use of jaw muscles, and additional walking around to tell different people could have weight loss benefits.
“In one case a office worker lost 14 kilograms in two weeks just by walking between floors to tell everyone what food groups she wasn’t allowed to eat”.
