Intermittent fasting would not bring more significant results on weight loss than the low calorie diet, according to the results of a study published in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. On the other hand, it would be a little more complicated to follow in the long term.
Researchers at the University of Illinois, Alabama, Stanford and Pennington Biomedical Research Center (Louisiana) in the United States conducted a clinical trial to compare the effects of alternative day fasting with daily calorie restriction on the weightlossweight maintenance and risk indicators heart disease.
Little difference between restrictive diet and intermittent fasting
They included in their study 100 obese adults who were followed between October 2011 and January 2015. The patients were assigned to 1 of the 3 following groups for one year: they followed either an alternative day fast (25% of the needs in calories on fast days, 125% of calorie requirement on alternate days), or daily calorie restriction (75% of calorie requirement each day), or a normal diet.
The results of the study showed that at 6 months, the average weight loss compared to the control group was similar in the intermittent fasting and classic weight loss diet group: -6.8% and -6.8% .
After one year, the average weight loss is again close for the 2 groups: -6.0% and -5.3%. The dropout rate was highest in the intermittent fasting group: 38%.
“Intermittent fasting is not superior to the daily calorie restriction diet in terms of adherence, weight loss, weight maintenance, or improvement in cardiovascular disease risk indicators. This does not mean that the intermittent fasting does not work but we remember that we are more likely to stick to a diet when it is not too difficult to adhere to, ”the researchers conclude.
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