Intermittent fasting is as effecting as calorie counting, according to a new study about the time-restricted approach to eating.Photo:Getty
Getty
With stars fromJennifer AnistontoChris Prattpraising intermittent fasting, the time-restricted approach to eating has become a popular weight-loss tool.
Devotees like the ease of the system, where you limit your eating hours to a portion of the day, then “fast” during the remaining hours to lose weight. Past critics have said that intermittent fasting wasn’t measurably“beneficial” to weight loss compared to the traditional calorie-counting method, where a person simply eats fewer calories than they burn in a day.
But,a new studyshows that calorie counting and intermittent fasting are equally effective when it comes to weight loss.
Intermittent fasting can achieve the same results as calorie counting, according to a new study.Getty
The reason is simple: Those who adhere to time-restricted eating end up consuming fewer calories.
Essentially, limiting caloric intake can be done through intermittent fasting, which might be easier —and require less effort — for some people. Those result is the same: fewer calories, but without measuring food, checking labels, or going through the often time-consuming steps that traditional calorie-counting can require.
“People usually eat within a 12-to-14-hour window, so all we’re doing is cutting out around six hours,“she says.“Mainly we’re cutting out, I think, after-dinner snacks.”
That echoes what modelMolly Simswrote while praisingintermittent fasting: “Especially if you’ve been eating late dinners, or snacking and drinking late at night at parties, this can be helpful to try to reset.”
Intermittent fasting results in restricting calories — but without weighing your food or going through other time-consuming steps, a new study says.Getty
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Another key feature of the study was that participants met regularly with dieticians — which one doctor says is essential for a successful weight-loss journey.
“Most people who are doing this are not doing it with any type of dietary or behavioral support. They’re doing it on their own,” Dr. Adam Gilden, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado,told NPR.
Golden authored an editorial that waspublishedwith Varady’s study, and maintains that support is essential to successful weight loss.
And although weight loss is generally the main motivation why someone might start intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating may hold other benefits.
According to a 2019 paper published in theNew England Journal of Medicine,intermittent fastingcan help people combat diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurologic disorders — as well as obesity.
And as nutrition expert Naomi Whittel told PEOPLE, “It’s really, really healthy for us. It improves our immune systems” — and she praises the practice not just as a way to lose weight, but as “a lifestyle.”
That said, intermittent fasting can be harmful to some people, and is not advised for those who struggle with disordered eating.
A2022 studyfound an actual link between the time-restricted approach and disordered eating. “Intermittent fasting…was significantly associated with eating disorder psychopathology,” wrote study authors.
source: people.com
