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Dr Jenny Rayner, a cardiologist from RDM, teamed up with Prof Susan Jebb and Prof Paul Aveyard, from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, and the BBC, to put the latest research on “crash dieting” to the test.

Dr Jenny RaynerFour obese volunteers with serious weight-related health issues, including type 2 diabetes, go on a total diet replacement programme for the BBC's "The Big Crash Diet Experiment" and give up real food, surviving on a very low calorie soups-and-shakes diet.

The programme features Dr Jenny Rayner, from our department,  together with Prof Susan Jebb and Prof Paul Aveyard, from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. In addition, Prof Charis Antoniades and researchers from OCMR and AVIC were also involved in the study.

The study found that crash diets in the early phase caused fat to accumulate within the heart muscle with some associated functional impairment. However, as the diet continued, this fat reduced and by the end was lower than baseline.