Weight Loss

Alternate-day Fasting: Not Worth The Famine

9th May 2017

By Harriet Mallinson | Published on May 9, 2017


For dieters who abhor the idea of constant deprivation, an intermittent fasting approach could seem the most realistic. Yes, you might be miserably prodding a wilting spinach leaf for dinner one day, but the next you can guiltlessly gorge on a slab of chocolate cake.

In many ways, this eating regime seems like a fantastic idea and potentially easier to adhere to. After all, there are numerous benefits to fasting: upping your regulation of fat burning from stored fat tissue, greater detoxification effects and better mental clarity.

However, research published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine last week has revealed that the fast then feast approach is in fact no better than a traditional diet when it comes to slimming down.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago initially expected subjects to benefit more from alternate-day fasting than daily calorie reduction, but the study proved otherwise.

The randomized clinical trial saw 100 metabolically healthy obese adults (86 women and 14 men) allocated one of three groups for a year. The first of these was alternate-day fasting (25% of energy needs on fast days; 125% of energy needs on alternating “feast days”). The second group was calorie restriction (75% of energy needs every day) and the third a no-intervention control.

 

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The trial involved a six-month weight-loss phase followed by a six-month weight-maintenance phase. But, by the end of the first phase, those on the fasting diet had lost roughly the same amount of weight (6.0%) as those on the calorie-restricted diet (5.3%). In short, there proved to be no benefits of alternate-fasting over a traditional diet.

But were the dieters strict enough? “Participants in the alternate-day fasting group ate more than prescribed on fast days, and less than prescribed on feast days,” wrote the researchers, “while those in the daily calorie restriction group generally met their prescribed energy goals.”

Moreover, many subjects found it very hard to persevere with fasting, resulting in 38% of the group dropping out.

“I was surprised by the findings,’ Krista A. Varady, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago and primary author on the study, told MACROS. “However, it’s important to remember that alternate-day fasting (ADF) is still effective for weight loss, it’s just not more effective than daily calorie restriction (in a randomized control trial). Overall, people need to find a diet that they can incorporate into their lifestyle long-term. For some people, it’s fasting, and for others, it’s daily calorie restriction (or any of the other hundred diets out there). I would definitely still recommend giving ADF a try.”

So, while an intermittent fasting diet does result in weight loss if done properly, it might not be the plan for you. If you think you too won’t be able to stick at such a drastic approach, maybe try out the 5:2 diet or fast one day a week plus limiting calories the other six days.

 

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