Intermittent Fasting, Can it Help You Lose Weight?
Intermittent fasting is the latest diet fad on the diet scene. This new approach alternates periods of unrestricted eating with periods where you sharply limit calories according to the ratio of your choosing.
For example, if you choose a 16/8 schedule, you’ll fast for 16 hours, then eat all your daily calories in an eight-hour window.
You must maintain this schedule for a full week. Therefore on a 16/8 daily schedule you can decide to do a 5/2 week. This means that you would eat away to your hearts content for 5 days, then eat only 500 calories each day over the last two days of that week.
The question you’re probably asking right now is–does this diet really work?
The answer thus far is an unequivocal “maybe not”.
Intermittent Fasting: Does It Work?
The latest published research study reveals that intermittent fasting is no more effective than than an old-fashioned low-calorie diet.
German researchers examined 150 overweight and obese nonsmoking patients over one year; some of them simply cut calories by 20 percent, while others followed a 5/2 pattern of intermittent fasting. At the end of the trial, both had lost similar amounts of weight and body fat.
A 2017 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found similar results. According to Caroline Apovian, an obesity specialist at Boston University Medical Center, The key is not ‘when you eat’, but how much you actually eat over time. Indeed, even of those intermittent dieters who have managed to lose weight, 40% dropped the diet after six months and gained back the weight.
Other experts, such as Dr. Pamela Peeke, University of Maryland, advise that people eat their calories between 7 AM and 7 PM. This 12-hour window gives your body enough time to re-set itself metabolically.
Research shows that eating late at night, those midnight snacks, for example, are bad for your health. It leads to gaining weight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.
It appears that if you are serious about losing weight and keeping it off, do it the old fashioned way. Eat healthy foods and exercise at least three days a week.