Optimal interval
A clinical study has confirmed the benefits of interval fasting
Georgy Golovanov, Hi-tech+
One of the most popular forms of interval fasting – reducing the time of calorie intake to several hours a day – is the 16:8 diet, when a person abstains from eating for 16 hours, and for 8 hours there is what he wants. However, there are no clinical studies proving the benefits of such a time interval for the prevention of eating disorders yet. But there was another, with an assessment of two diets – 20:4 and 18:6.
Experts from the University of Chicago in Illinois have published the results of the first clinical trial, which compares the results of two types of diets – 20:4 and 18:6. Scientists invited 58 volunteers and randomly divided them into three groups, including a control group.
Members of the first two groups could eat any food in a given period of time, but had to refrain from taking calories for 20 or 16 hours. The 20:4 group was told to eat only from 15:00 to 19:00, and the 18:6 group – from 13:00 to 19:00. The experiment lasted eight weeks, says the press release How long should you fast for weight loss?
First of all, the result was weight loss, and secondly, improvements were noted among biomarkers of cardiac health, in particular, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglyceride and markers of inflammation.
However, in general, there was no big difference between the two diets two months later. Compared to the control group, the other two lost about 3% of their total body weight, and also reduced the number of calories consumed by an average of 550 per day.
By the end of the eight-week period, both "dietary" groups demonstrated the same decrease in insulin resistance and the level of oxidative stress.
"The results of this study are encouraging and confirm what we see in other works: interval fasting is an acceptable option for those who want to lose weight, especially for those people who do not want to count calories or find other diets tedious," said Krista Varadi, one of the authors of the study. – It is also significant that stricter abstinence does not lead to greater weight loss."
The researchers concluded that an 18-hour period of abstinence from food is the optimal strategy for most, at least until the results of new experiments on comparing these two diets or finding the optimal fasting time appear. Perhaps, from the point of view of metabolism, it would be more rational to move the meal window to the morning.
Article by Cienfuegos et al. Effects of 4- and 6-h Time-Restricted Feeding on Weight and Cardiometabolic Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Adults with Obesity published in the journal Cell Metabolism – VM.
Earlier, Australian scientists found that periodic fasting has a positive effect on liver health. During the 12-day experiment, scientists fed experimental mice every two days. It turned out that the concentration of enzymes associated with the synthesis of fatty acids and their oxidation increased in the liver of starving mice.
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