A fasting diet could actually be a safe and beneficial way to lose weight!

Fasting is a dangerous way to lose weight, right? Maybe not! The celebrity-endorsed 5:2 diet of intermittent fasting may be scientifically proven to help you lose weight and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other aging-related diseases.

Here's how it works: 5 days of the week, you eat as normal. Some people don't even watch what they eat during those days, eating pizza, steak and pasta without counting calories. The other two days a week, you significantly restrict the amount of calories you eat. Depending on your weight, some people go as low as only eating 500 calories per day of fruits, vegetables and skim milk.

The reason this shocking diet supposedly works is because your body runs on glycogen from your liver, which is created from food. After 12 hours without food, your liver takes the glycogen from your stored fat cells.

Scientists say this diet may be encouraged in the future, but for now, it's simply something you may want to try. We're not officially recommending it, but if you try it or you've tried it or something similar in the past, please let us know if and how it works!

And help us get more information by sharing this on Facebook and Twitter!