Is the 4:3 diet the new 5:2? Championed by medical journalist Michael Mosley, who with Mimi Spencer then went on to publish the bestselling The Fast Diet book, the 5:2 diet works on the premise that cutting down your calories dramatically (to around 500 per day for women) for two days a week, while eating what you liked on the other five, would not only shift around a pound a week, but also boost your health. As well as improvement in biomarkers relating to breast cancer in women, scientists are now looking at links between reduced risk of dementia and intermittent fasting. But before you get your calorie counter and diary out, the fasting maths is about to change, thanks to Dr.Krista Vraday, a Chicago-based scientist who accidentally discovered the startling weight loss effects of her 4:3 diet while researching calorie deprivation every other day on mice with cancer. Reported in The Times, her findings (which she then tested successfully on humans) can now be found in the Every Other Day Diet book. Healthy weight loss begins in 2014 with the 4:3 diet she says - that's four days fasting and three days off every week, and then the reverse the following week, so effectively 3:4. Only ever 24 hours or under away from the foods you love (yes that's right, how you make up your non fasting day foods is up to you - in fact testers on high fat foods lost more due to feelings of satiation) Vraday says her new diet has two success factors. The first is that the 4:3 does away with feelings of deprivation, and two, that there aren't any hard-to-follow rules. We have to admit that while 500 cals (usually broken down into a lunch and a snack) is low, the lure of the calorie-rich 'dangling carrot' at the end of one day of fasting somehow makes it doable. READ - Model diets at London Fashion Week According to Vraday, no sign of cravings also meant dieters rarely went over 110 per cent of their recommended calorie intake on 'feast day'. Combine that with 500 calories on Diet Day - only around 25 per cent of the recommended daily calorie intake - and you have a 30 per cent reduction in calorie intake over two days. You do that maths. What's also interesting is that the 4:3 reminds the body what it feels like to be hungry, which has the natural effect of resetting our hormones and regulating what we eat - one of the reasons those on the 4:3 don't tend to cheat by more than 50 calories on Diet Day. Vraday also noticed that dieters also saw very little loss of lean body mass, so what you do lose (of around 1lb a week on average, depending on your starting point) tends to be fat. The risks in diabetes, arthritis, cancer and cholesterol also dropped. Controversially, there are a few new diet rule breakers to add to the mix. Weigh yourself every day (taking the mean weight over two days as your actual weight), and don't eat breakfast or snacks on fast day. I know, it's difficult to get our heads round, but if like us you like the sound of a slightly less round waist line without any banned foods, it might be time to fast. The Diet Day can start tomorrow.