There Is Nothing Special About Intermittent Fasting
But it may still help you lose weight
What is so special about intermittent fasting (IF)?
IF, or time-restricted feeding (TRF), is a hotly debated topic in fitness and nutrition circles. In short, IF is a dietary strategy in which food intake is limited to 10 hours less a day. The most common strategy is feeding for 8 hours and fasting for 16.
Some studies suggest IF leads to superior weight loss and improvements in cardiometabolic markers (such as blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels, insulin levels, and plasma lipid levels). Conversely, other studies show no significant difference in any measure.
While these are reviews of multiple studies, they are composed of low and moderate-quality trials. Furthermore, there is a glaring issue with most of the trials within these research reviews — they don’t equate calories.
When calories are equated, such as the trial from the Annals of Internal Medicine, we see a different story. In this well-controlled trial, the calories and macronutrients were matched between the groups so that they all had the same amount of caloric restriction. All of the food was provided to the participants.
