According to a new study, allowing yourself to eat for a period of 4 to 6 hours can be effective in losing weight without restricting calories.
- Intermittent fasting for 10 weeks allowed study participants to lose up to 3% of their body weight.
- Fasting also reduced oxidative stress and insulin resistance.
Consisting of complete caloric restriction for a defined period, fasting is an effective way to “detoxify” the body. Several studies have shown its health benefits : not only does it allow the body to eliminate toxins and bad fats, but it would also promote the prevention of certain diseases such as diabetes, while protecting the liver.
In a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolismresearchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago (United States), were interested in the virtues of intermittent fasting, which alternates restriction periods and periods of normal eating, on weight loss.
Two modes of intermittent fasting were compared: a 4-hour time-restricted diet and a 6-hour diet. “This is the first human clinical trial comparing the effects of two popular forms of time-restricted feeding on body weight and cardiometabolic risk factors.”explains the professor of nutrition and co-author of the study, Krista Varady.
A loss of 3% of their body mass
As part of the study, participants in the time limited diet 4 a.m. were asked to eat only between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. Those following the 6-hour intermittent fast could only eat between 1 and 7 p.m.
In either group, participants were allowed to eat whatever they wanted and only had to drink water or calorie-free beverages. Participants in a control group had to maintain their weight and not change their diet or level of physical activity.
During the 10 weeks of the experiment, the volunteers were monitored on their weight. The researchers measured their insulin resistance, oxidative stress, blood pressure, LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, triglycerides and inflammatory markers.
The results showed that in both groups of volunteers practicing intermittent fasting, the participants reduced their calorie intake by about 550 calories each day and lost about 3% of their body mass. The researchers also found that insulin resistance and oxidative stress levels were reduced in study group participants compared to the control group. They did not, however, notice any effect on blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol or triglycerides.
There was also no significant difference in terms of weight loss or cardiometabolic risk factors between the two groups that practiced intermittent fasting.
“The results of this study are promising and reinforce what we’ve seen in other studies: fasting diets are a viable option for people who want to lose weight, especially for those who don’t want to count calories or find other diets tiringsays Professor Varady. It’s also telling that there was no additional weight loss benefit for people who followed the longer fast. Until we have more studies that directly compare the two diets or seek to investigate the optimal time for fasting, these results suggest that 6-hour fasting might make sense for most people who want to follow a diet. daily fasting regimen.”
.
