There are many people who are planning to try intermittent fasting but before trying any popular diet, it is necessary to know if it really helps to lose weight. A new study reveals that intermittent fasting surely helps people who are obese and overweight as they were able to lose up to 2 pounds in 12 weeks. But these results are not better than the control group which was not following this diet.
The complete study findings are published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
These results are different than other studies which showed that such fasting diets are helpful in weight loss. That’s why the researchers of this study said that these results are not conclusive and might need more extensive research to reach a decisive end.
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Intermittent fasting seems fairly simple and easy to follow. All that a person has to do is to restrict eating which is easy for most people because of their sedentary lifestyle. But it is necessary to know if this timely eating is helping a person to lose weight or just changing his dietary pattern.
This current study showed that nearly 3% of the participants lost weight during a period of eight weeks of this study. Those who continued to follow their routine dietary routine experienced no change in their weight.
The idea of how to lose weight with an intermittent diet is simple, one has to follow time for eating. There is a specific time slot during which they can eat small healthy means and for the rest of the hours, they don’t eat.
It allows the body to follow a natural process of calorie restriction. The reason why most people like and follow intermittent fasting is for the reason that it is very simple. There are no complicated details, no calorie counts, no need to shop special ingredients, or cook special meals. It seems like an effort-loss weight-loss diet as compared to other weight-loss diets such as the keto diet.
This study analyzed 116 people who were categorized as obese and were made to follow an intermittent fasting diet for the next 12 weeks. They were allowed to eat between 12 pm to 8 pm only. Some of them were a part of a control group.
By the end of this trial, those who were following the diet lost nearly 2 pounds each, on average. But those who were following their routine diet also lost some weight. So the obtained results were not significant among the two groups.
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These findings are contradictory to the previous studies which acknowledge intermittent fasting as a natural weight loss diet. But there could be some underlying factors that can change the results this time. For example, the eating time window of 12-8 pm is probably not an optimal one. Or maybe people are eating excessively during the eating hours.
Just advising people to eat between 12 pm and 8 pm is not a wise suggestion because there is no check and balance on portion size and calorie intake. That’s why the results of this study are different from other studies on intermittent fasting benefits.
