Here's what five days of fatty food does to your body

Eating fatty foods can change your metabolism in just five days, according to a new study.

In the research, published in the journal Obesity, scientists from Virginia Tech university put 12 healthy male students on a 55 per cent fat diet (a normal diet has around 30 per cent fat) with their overall calorie intake remaining the same. The dishes included a lot of butter, sausage biscuits (a sort of unhealthy sandwich) and macaroni and cheese.

Researchers took muscle samples and they found it took five days to change how the test subjects metabolised food.

"Most people think they can indulge in high-fat foods for a few days and get away with it," said lead author Matt Hulver. "But all it takes is five days for your body's muscle to start to protest. This shows that our bodies can respond dramatically to changes in diet in a shorter time frame than we have previously thought."

When you eat, glucose in your blood rises which muscles then help break down or store. If a normal metabolism changes, it can lead to health problems such as diabetes. The team are now looking at how changes in metabolism can affect the body in the long run.

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