Want
to drop some pounds? Chances are, you’ve considered intermittent fasting, a
weight-loss technique that’s been surging in popularity. It involves set times
when your eating is restricted and others when you eat as normal—or even more
than you would typically.
But
is there really any benefit to this kind of eating? A new study adds some
clarity to the complicated topic: Intermittent
fasting is no more effective for weight loss than daily calorie restriction,
researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago report.
Researchers split 100 inactive, overweight men and
women with no history of heart disease or diabetes into three groups: A calorie-restricted
group, an alternate-day fasting group, and a control group.
The calorie-restricted group took the traditional
weight loss approach. Every day, they reduced their caloric intake by 25
percent, meaning they ate 75 percent of the calories they would need to
maintain their weight among three meals a day.
The alternate-day fasting group ate 25 percent of
their caloric needs every other day, known as “fast” days, between 12 p.m. and
2 p.m. They bookended their “fast” days with “feast” days, when they ate 125
percent of their caloric needs among three meals a day. So if you typically eat
2,000 calories a day, you’d eat 500 calories one day, followed by 2,500 the
next.
People in the control group ate as they normally
would, but were instructed to maintain their weight throughout the study.
After 6 months, the study participants were told to
maintain their weight loss for another 6 months. During this phase, the fasting
group ate half their caloric needs on fast days and 150 percent on feast days,
while the calorie-restricting group ate 100 percent of what they needed every
day.
After one year, there was no significant difference
in how much weight either weight-loss group lost or how long they kept it off,
the study found. What’s more, neither group experienced any higher risk for
other health issues, like cardiovascular disease.
Can You Stick With
Intermittent Fasting?
The success of any weight loss
plan depends on whether you’ll actually stick with it long enough to see
results. So, which one is more sustainable?
In the study, 38 percent of people dropped out of
the fasting group compared to 29 percent of people in the calorie-restricting
group by the end of the year. And over time, people in the fasting group
started moving toward daily calorie restriction, potentially signaling that it
could be hard to stick with in the long run, the study authors say.
But that might simply have to do with how the study
was set up: The researchers broke down the diets into 30 percent fat, 55
percent carbs, and 15 percent protein. Eating only 15 percent of your calories
from protein—especially on fast days, when you’re eating so little overall—can
make you feel hungrier, making the plan harder to stick to, says obesity
specialist Spencer Nadolsky, D.O.
If hunger becomes an issue on “fast” days, bumping
up your protein intake helps keep you fuller for longer, possibly boosting your
ability to adhere to the diet, he says.
Should You Try
Intermittent Fasting?
So if both methods help you lose weight, how do you
know which one will work best for you?
“The people who can benefit from this type of
alternate-day fasting are those who would rather feel like they aren’t restricting
food intake 3.5 days out of the week,” says Men’s Health nutrition
advisor, Alan Aragon, M.S. Meaning, you find it hard to stick to a diet all the
time, and you like the “break” of feast days.
But on the other hand, the intense restriction
intermittent fasting requires on the other days could be
extremely difficult for some people, especially in certain instances.
Take your job, for example: If your day-to-day work
requires hard, manual labor, fasting may not work for you, since you’re
constantly burning energy, says Dr. Nadolsky. But if you have a desk job and
your schedule doesn’t get in the way, 500-calorie days can be more realistic,
he explains.
Bottom line: If you want to try intermittent
fasting for weight loss—and your doctor okays it if you have any pre-existing
health issues—you can give it a shot to see if it works for you.
So how can you make it more sustainable? Making
less rules for yourself—like avoiding a specific caloric goal on feast days as
they did in the study—may lead to better results, Aragon says.
In fact, recent research shows that eating nothing on
fasting days and as you normally would on feasting days may actually work
better than daily-calorie restriction, Aragon notes.
Just keep in mind that most diets should lead to
weight loss within a couple of months, Dr. Nadolsky says. So if you haven’t
lost 2 percent of your weight in the first month or 3 percent by the second
month, it may be worth looking into another approach or modifying the diet
you’re currently on.
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