The Hugh Jackman diet “the 16: 8 diet” is practiced by celebrities who promise a boost in energy and greater brain capacity, one person tried it and this is what happened.
If the idea of a regulated eating plan and a “time-restricted diet” makes your stomach turn (or if you want to enjoy your meal, regardless of the time of day), then you may not want to continue reading or following the Hugh Jackman’s diet.
A study presented at the annual meeting of the Obesity Society found that eating before 2:00 p.m. can reduce hunger cravings for the rest of the day and increase your fat-burning reserves. While it may increase the chances of a midnight craving, it means you’re likely crowding all of your meals into a six-hour window in the name of a better body.
Is it really healthy? Research documented that the plan worked well on animals, but what happened to humans? One of its first and most famous adopters is the star of Wolverine. To find out, we put a Men’s Health contributor on Hugh Jackman’s diet to see if he could reduce his body fat.
DATA OF THE SUBJECT
Name: David Morton, skeptic of fasting
Challenge: Follow Hugh Jackman’s diet
The diet says that: it reduces body fat while increasing muscle volume rapidly.
“WHEN HUGH JACKMAN GROWLED HIS WAY TO OUR COVER, I HAD A KIND OF EPIPHANY. MEN WHO HONOR MEN’S HEALTH ARE ALWAYS IN INCREDIBLE SHAPE, BUT WITH JACKMAN, I REALIZED, HE HAD WHAT HE DIDN’T KNOW HE HAD ALWAYS WANTED: SIZE AND STRENGTH THAT WOULD BE AS USEFUL ON THE RUGBY FIELD AS IMPRESSIVE IN THE MIRROR; A SHAPE THAT SUITS MY BODY TYPE NATURALLY “EN BLOC”. HE WANTED TO BE HUGH, AS I’M SURE MANY WANT TO BE, “EXPLAINS MORTON.
Wolverine’s physique was powered by a diet regimen called 16: 8, a type of intermittent fasting (the word is a type) in which he doesn’t eat anything for 16 hours a day, then concentrates all of his calories on the other eight. It clearly worked for Hugh Jackman, so the challenge is to stick to a 16: 8 diet for 10 days to find out if it works for anyone.
UNCH TIME
Research shows that there is more to the diet than mutant pecs. Yes, it has been found to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease (American Society for Clinical Nutrition) and extend your life expectancy (Medical Hypotheses).
“FASTING ALSO ACTIVATES SEVERAL VERY INTERESTING BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES,” SAYS NUTRITIONAL SCIENTIST BEN COOMBER.
“ONE IS APOPTOSIS OR AUTOPHAGY, WHICH IS THE PROCESS OF CELL DEATH. THIS MEANS THAT IT CLEANSES THE DEAD CELLS AND ELIMINATES THEM, IN ADDITION IT ELIMINATES THE TOXINS ”. THIS ALL SOUNDS PRETTY GOOD.
“It doesn’t feel too bad, either. I skip breakfast (the cups of coffee are fine) and then break half a roasted chicken at 11:00 in the morning, with tender spinach and a wholemeal roll. That weighs around 800 kcal with over 50 g of protein (almost 90% of my recommended daily dose). I go to the gym at 1:00 in the afternoon, when I usually had lunch. Like again around 3:00 pm: sushi or a sandwich. Dinner ends at 7:00 pm and then the 4:00 pm timer starts again, ”explains Morton.
As with so many things in life (haircuts, vacations, pregnancies), the success of the Hugh Jackman diet comes down to careful programming. If you are an action hero, an A-lister, your job depends on keeping you fit and you can afford to exercise at noon, every day, then you will be more successful.
This makes the most of the hormonal effect of your fasting period:
“WHEN YOU DON’T EAT, YOUR MUSCLE CELLS BECOME MORE SENSITIVE TO INSULIN,” SAYS COOMBER. “SO WHEN YOU EAT FOOD, THE MUSCLE CELL IS AS RESPONSIVE AS POSSIBLE AND YOU GET A MUCH GREATER ANABOLIC RESPONSE WHEN YOU EXERCISE.”
However, you only have breaks to eat or to go to the gym, so you must sacrifice possible cellular stimuli to maintain a more normal daily routine.
“ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES WAS MY ATTEMPTS TO DINE AT HOME WITH MY GIRLFRIEND, THEY MEANT THAT THE 16-HOUR FASTING WINDOW WAS DELAYED LITTLE BY LITTLE AND TWICE DURING THE TEST I HAD TO RESET THE CLOCK TO AVOID EATING ALONE AT 11 : 00 PM ”SAYS MORTON.
THE WEIGHING
“At the end of my 10-day experiment on the Hugh Jackman diet, I reduced my body fat by almost 2%. Although not X-Men approved, the results are better than I had predicted. Especially since I didn’t eliminate a single food from my daily diet and I always felt full, “explains Morton.
If you want to lose a little excess weight without wasting time, the 16: 8 diet is a scientifically sound and simple diet plan to understand. But if you want to train hard during the week, socialize on the weekends, and if you value dining with family and friends more than looking like Hugh, you should see him only as a short-term solution. The Hugh Jackman diet will kick-start your physique, but if you want to build Wolverine’s true size, you’ll need to make intermittent fasting a normal thing in your life.