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Cutting Daily Calories by a Third Could Reduce Your Risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Dementia

  • January 23, 2017

A groundbreaking study has found that cutting your daily calorie intake by 30 to 40 percent can help prevent age-related diseases, including heart disease and dementia, the Daily Mail reports. A calorie-restricted diet was also found to stave off stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

I’ve been a huge advocate for restricting your eating in the form of intermittent fasting for a long time. Many studies show that time-restricted eating can both prevent and reverse obesity and related metabolic dysfunction, as well as having a beneficial effect on a wide array of biological functions and systems.

In fact, one review of several studies found a broad range of therapeutic potential of intermittent fasting, even when total calorie intake per day did not change, or was only slightly reduced. From reductions in inflammation to cardiovascular improvements to better pancreatic function and improved insulin levels, there are many reasons to adopt this eating strategy.

When it comes to shedding unwanted pounds and reworking your fat-to-muscle ratio, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with intermittent fasting is a winning combination that's hard to beat.

If you need to lose 50 pounds, you're looking at about six months or so of intermittent fasting, after which you can revert back to eating more regularly. My only caveat is that you also need to pay attention to the quality of the food you eat. Since both HIIT and intermittent fasting help shift your body from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel, it's important to feed your body the right nutrients.