US EditionStudy: Intermittent Fasting No Better Than Regular Diets
A review of 22 trials with nearly 2,000 adults found intermittent fasting offers no clinically meaningful weight loss advantage over traditional diets or no intervention.
- Published Monday, the Cochrane analysis found intermittent fasting may result in little to no difference in weight loss compared with regular advice or doing nothing.
- Surging public interest in IF has grown in recent years, fueled by social media and lifestyle influencers, prompting researchers to assess it amid obesity as a major public‑health challenge.
- The review pooled 22 randomised controlled trials involving 1,995 adults aged 18–80 across North America, Europe, China, Australia and South America, but most trials lasted up to 12 months with inconsistent side-effect reporting.
- Review authors warned results cannot be extrapolated due to variation by sex, age, ethnicity and health, so doctors advising overweight adults should take a case-by-case approach given short-term trials.
- To fill evidence gaps, the authors recommend future trials with longer follow-up and better reporting in low- and middle-income countries, including participant satisfaction and diabetes status, while experts urged that exercise and weight-loss medications support population-level obesity strategies.
37 Articles
37 Articles
Interval fasting is popular: It should not only help with weight loss, but also protect against cardiovascular diseases. But does it really? Results of a new metaanalysis dampen expectations. By Melanie Stinn.
Many people put great hopes on interval fasting. But a new scientific analysis comes to a sobering result. Therefore, the enthusiasm for the method is not justified, the study situation has large gaps.
Interval fasting, according to a new study, may be less effective than many people assume. In adults with overweight or obesity, weight loss is probably not higher than other diets, reports the British organisation Cochrane, which evaluates regularly available studies on health issues in the form of so-called reviews.
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