A rising number of people are opting to follow the weight-loss strategy of intermittent fasting, which involves going without food for a predetermined amount of time on a daily or weekly basis. This trend gained popularity during the previous ten years. Many of these methods of fasting do not require calorie counting, which is something that many dieters find preferable.
A new study that was published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that time-restricted eating may generate similar outcomes to standard calorie counting when it comes to weight loss. Some academics have maintained that traditional calorie counting is a more effective and proven method to reduce weight.
Krista Varady, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who led the study that led to these findings, stated that they discovered that people can lose weight and cut calories by the same amount without having to keep track of anything but the passage of time.
For some people, it’s just much easier, and ideally, in the long term, they may be able to stick to that plan better than tediously monitoring their calories every day.
Getting in shape without counting calories
Dr. Varady and her colleagues monitored 90 obese people from the Chicago area for the duration of the trial, with 77 of them completing it. Their goal was to determine how well intermittent fasting compared to calorie restriction. About 80 percent of the participants were female, and their average age was 44. They came from a variety of racial backgrounds (including black, Hispanic, Asian, and white).
The participants were each given a random assignment to one of the following three plans:
- consuming as much food as desired while limiting eating to a four-hour window (between midday and eight o’clock in the evening).
- Keeping track of caloric intake and reducing it by 25% of what it normally would be will help.
- Maintaining one’s normal eating routine (consumption spread out over the course of ten or more hours per day) will serve as the control group in this experiment.
During the first six months of the study, participants in the calorie-restricted and fasting groups saw a nutritionist once a week and twice a month, respectively. Dietary advice was provided to help people make healthier food choices, such as by highlighting the advantages of eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking less soda and alcohol. No one was allowed to alter their regular exercise routines.
Fasting and calorie restriction produced the same outcomes after one year. Weight loss was roughly 10 pounds greater in the fasting, calorie-unrestricted group compared to the control group. People who participated in the calorie counting study lost nearly 12 pounds despite consuming 405 fewer calories per day on average than the control group.
Reducing your weight lessens your chances of developing diabetes and heart disease
According to Cleveland Clinic psychologist and registered dietitian David Creel, Ph.D., RD, “the amount of weight lost indicates that behavioral approaches can work.”
Dr. Creel, who was not involved in the study, argues that even this modest weight loss can have substantial health advantages. Researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated that losing as little as 5 percent of one’s body weight can improve metabolic performance in the liver, fat, and muscle tissues and lower one’s risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
However, Creel notes that additional therapies, such as drugs or bariatric (weight loss) surgery, may be necessary to help obese patients achieve more meaningful slimming and health benefits.
Fasting at irregular intervals may improve insulin sensitivity
The authors of the study also noticed an improvement in insulin sensitivity in the fasting group when compared to the control group; however, they did not observe this improvement in the group that restricted their calorie intake.
Insulin resistance is another name for insulin sensitivity that has been impaired. The pancreas produces the hormone insulin, which is crucial in maintaining normal blood glucose (sugar) levels. When a person has reduced insulin sensitivity, the cells in their muscle, fat, and liver do not respond adequately to insulin, which means that they are unable to efficiently uptake and/or store glucose from the circulation. This condition is known as diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, this can result in higher amounts of glucose in the blood, which can ultimately lead to prediabetes or type 2 diabetes.