A new study has found that crash diets may actually be one of the most effective ways to lose weight.

Researchers recently carried out a study on 200 obese adults in Australia, dividing them up into two groups. The first group were put on a rapid weight loss scheme, or ‘crash diet’, where their calorie intake was dramatically cut over the course of 12 weeks.

Their counterparts were then placed on a different diet, one which saw their calorie intake slowly reduced over a 36-week period, and which went by the national health authority’s guidelines for healthy weight loss.

The findings of the study proved quite surprising, with researchers discovering that the first group – the one that undertook the ‘crash diet’ approach – were actually more likely to hit their targets and maintain their desired weight than the other group.

To get right down to the statistics, 81 percent of the ‘crash dieters’ hit their target weight which, in comparison to only 50 percent of the gradual dieters, is a huge difference.

We know what you’re saying now, though – we bet the crash dieters put all that weight right back on again straight away.

Well, you would be wrong! When the researchers checked up on all 200 subjects three years later, they discovered that both groups had gained around 71 percent of the weight they had initially lost.

Given how we have always been advised that losing weight slowly, over a prolonged period of time is the best method, this new study definitely provides food for thought.