'My stomach is so small I hardly have any appetite, I can't keep weight on and I hallucinate' Philip Schofield tells of dramatic effects of 5:2 diet Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2657151/My-stomach-small-I-hardly-appetite-I-weight-I-hallucinate-Philip-Schofield-tells-dramatic-effects-5-2-diet.

Phillip Schofield has revealed  he experienced hallucinations after losing weight on the 5:2 diet.

The presenter of ITV’s This Morning says the strict regime enabled him to shed one and a half stone. He now weighs a trim 11 stone.

But he said that there were side effects, having previously said he was struggling to adapt to the regime.

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Dangers: Phillip Schofield, pictured this week presenting on This Morning, has revealed that the 5.2 diet helped him shift a stone and a half but left him hallucinating

It allows men to consume only 600 calories two days a week while eating  normally on other days. Schofield,  52, confessed on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man show on Channel 4: ‘I have had hallucinations.’

The presenter said he went on a  diet after he thought he looked ‘a bit porky’ in a picture. ‘I wanted to be 11 stone,’ he said.

‘It took nine or ten months and now I am. My stomach is now so small I have hardly any appetite and can’t keep weight on.’

The 5:2 diet involves limiting yourself to 500 calories a day (600 for men) for two non-consecutive days per week and eating whatever you like for the rest, and has been the year's most popular way of slimming down fast.

It was the brainchild of Mimi Spencer and Michael Mosley and has attracted celebrity fans including Benedict Cumberbatch and Miranda Kerr - and it prided itself on helping people lose weight all while improving blood pressure, cholesterol levels and insulin sensitivity.

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Weight loss: Phillip, 52, said he was feeling a bit 'porky' so decided to shift the pounds. He has gone from 12st in 2013, left, to 11st in less than ten months, right, pictured this week

Audience members were taken aback by his slim frame with one telling The Sun: 'His legs looked scarily thin. He didn't look right and people were saying he had lost too much weight.'

Phillip isn't the only star to have suffered hallucinations as the result of a strict diet. Gwyneth Paltrow says she too was left 'hallucinating' after a 10-day cleanse.

The Iron Man 3 actress is known for being active and eating healthy, but admits she has tried fads like juice cleanses in the past which did her more harm than good.

She explained: 'I've done juice cleanses in the past, and in my twenties I did the Master Cleanse, which left me hallucinating after 10 days.

'Be aware: a juice detox can crash your metabolism and lead to future weight gain,' she wrote in The Telegraph.

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More harm than good: Gwyneth Paltrow has criticised the cleansing trend in a new article she has penned

Katy Mason, Nutritionist at NutriCentre.com, said: 'Anxiety, blackouts (memory time loss), difficulty concentrating and hallucinations can have many different causes, and so it is always important to get such symptoms checked out by your doctor. 

'However, in this case, Phillip Schofields' hallucinations would most likely be caused by low blood sugar levels from not eating enough.

'If he had not slept well the night before, had a late night, been drinking alcohol, consumed a lot of caffeine, was stressed or had recently exercised then the situation could be exasperated as these things can contribute to low blood sugar levels. 

'When on the 5:2, it's really important to make sure you eat sensibly on the low calorie days, making sure your meal has a good ratio of protein to slow releasing carbohydrates.'

PROS AND CONS OF THE 5.2 DIET

British Dietetic Association spokesperson, Priya Tew, shared her views....

Pros:
1. The 5:2 diet works as the 2 days of eating 500kcals mean that overall you eat less calories. Eating less calories obviously favours weight loss. 
2. There is some evidence showing that this style of diet can work but it is only a couple of studies and it is not long term evidence. Most people want the weight to come off and stay off for good. We don't know the long-term effects of the 5:2 diet yet.
3. Intermittent fasting may help improve insulin sensitivity although more research is needed to back this up.
4. Fasting can lead to you being more in touch with your hunger cues and responding to them more appropriately.

Cons:
1. The fasting days can lead to lower energy, poor mood and concentration and a preoccupation with food as well as problems sleeping on fast nights. So you end up not able to eat much but constantly wanting to and being grumpy and tired about it! Exercising on these fasting days can be very difficult.
2. You can eat a completely unbalanced diet and end up with a poor nutritional intake as this diet focuses on calories and not getting the right nutrition and balance. In the long-term, eating an unbalanced diet can increase the health risks of chronic disease. For example focusing on eating 5 or more portion of fruit and vegetables, including wholegrains in your diet and having 3 portions of calcium foods per day are important nutritionally but are not considered in an intermittent fasting diet.
3. Although the 5:2 diet is meant to be a long-term solution, for most people it isn't a sustainable way to eat and it takes a lot of discipline. For long term weight loss, long-term lifestyle changes are needed. The risk with this diet is that people lose the weight, then find they cannot stick to the fasting principles and put it all back on again. Yo-yo dieting has been shown to be detrimental and can lead to the weight creeping up over the years.

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