The Fast Track researchers have just published the results of their pilot study, and they are VERY excited about it! But does this optimism match the actual data? Don’t miss an explosive episode of All Fired Up, as I walk you through this paper step by step, breaking down into plain English what actually happened when 21 teenagers were starved three times a week for 6 months, all in the pursuit of short term weight loss. My guest is the incredible Ruth Leach, whose eating disorder began at the age of 9, when her whole family started fasting for ‘health’. Ruth not only survived her eating disorder, she is now a fierce advocate for everyone at the coal face of this deadly illness. We are LIVID about the lack of information being given to parents and kids who are being introduced to a lifetime of metabolic damage, weight cycling and disordered eating. The Fast Track trial is STILL GOING AHEAD, and we need to keep pushing back against this antiquated, weight biased, dangerous approach to teen ‘health’. Share this one far and wide!!   ShowNotes This week we bring you Part 2 of The Fast Track Trial, where we dig into the results of the newly published Fast Track Pilot Study. A pilot study is a mini-version of a larger trial, a practice run for ‘the real thing’, and the results can give you a pretty good idea of what kinds of results we can expect from a larger trial. I really wanted to get a ‘plain English’ summary of what happened in this trial out there. An article in The Age newspaper about the Fast Track controversy stated that: "While the trial is the first of its kind, Professor Baur said it had come off the back of a successful pilot program in which 25 teenagers followed a similar model and saw benefits in their cholesterol, blood pressure, liver and heart function." Which is interesting, because Louise was reading the results of the pilot study at the time, and was noticing that in fact the trial results showed no changes in blood pressure, overall cholesterol, or liver function, and only 1 small change out of 9 measures of heart function. This is quite different to what the media was saying! It is so important to go back to the source and have a look at the scientific studies behind the media soundbytes, so you can fact check and see what actually happened. This should be easy, but in reality it’s not. Reading a study is actually quite complicated, and even when you have degrees and training in science, it can still be quite difficult to make sense of what happened. This is why I am here to unpack it for you! It is important for parents and teenagers who may be being targeted to participate in this trial to clearly understand what is likely to happen as a result of taking part. This is why I am doing this podcast. The article has just been published in the Journal of Nutrition, and the title is “Intermittent Energy Restriction is a Feasible, Effective and Acceptable Intervention to Treat Adolescents With Obesity”. What an impressive and optimistic title! But does the optimism match the data? The pilot trial took place at Sydney Children’s Hospital at Westmead, kids were recruited from the adolescent  “O” treatment clinic. 45 kids aged between 12 and 17 were approached, and 30 said yes. There were 25 girls and 5 boys, and the average age of the kids was 15. All of the teens were supposed to have a BMI of 30 or more. In fact, they ranged from a BMI of 27.7 to 52.4, so at least one was well below the weight threshold.** 3 of the kids were from Aboriginal or Torres Strait islander background. 6 of them were born overseas. We don’t know more about the cultural background of the rest of the kids. The experiment ran for 6 months under a dietitian. There were no psychologists or eating disorder specialists involved. For the first 12 weeks all of the kids were placed on Optifast (shakes)