Feast and famine approach to dieting effective for weight loss
While scientists have called for more work to confirm the findings, a new review suggests the so-called feast and famine approach to dieting may have greater benefits when it comes to weight loss.
Alternate day fasting involves a 24-hour fast on every second day, and has become more popular in recent years.
Other intermittent fasting approaches to dieting have also grown in popularity, including time-restricted eating, where people only eat for a certain number of hours in the day, such at the 16:8 diet involving a 16-hour fasting period followed by an eight-hour eating; and whole-day fasting, which includes the 5:2 diet involving five days of eating and two days of fasting periods.
Researchers from Scotland, the US, Canada and Germany wanted to compare fasting methods to continuous energy restriction diets by looking at all of the available evidence.
They examined data from 99 studies involving more than 6,500 people.
People involved in the studies had an average body mass index (BMI) of 31 and almost nine in 10 (89%) had pre-existing health conditions.
The research team found that both intermittent fasting diets and calorie restricted diets led to weight loss.
But compared with continuous energy restriction, alternate day fasting was the only strategy to show benefit in body weight reduction, with people on this diet losing 1.29kg more, according to the study, which has been published in The BMJ.
The authors said that alternate day fasting showed a 'trivial' reduction in body weight compared with both time restricted eating and whole day fasting
'Minor differences were noted between some intermittent fasting diets and continuous energy restriction, with some benefit for an alternate day fasting strategy with weight loss in shorter duration trials,' the authors wrote.
'All intermittent fasting strategies and continuous energy restriction diets showed a reduction in body weight when compared with an ad-libitum diet
'Of three intermittent fasting diets (ie, alternate day fasting, time restricted eating, and whole day fasting), alternate day fasting showed benefit in body weight reduction compared with continuous energy restriction.'
Around 29% of adults in the UK are obese.
Last week the NHS' top doctor said that weight loss jabs could be as transformative as statins.
Later this month GPs in England will be allowed to prescribe mounjaro, also known as tirzepatide, for the first time.
Patients previously needed to access the drugs through a special weight loss service.
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