The latest Cochrane review finds that intermittent fasting results in little to no effect on weight loss.
Like many modern womenfolk, this Back Page scribe has heard it all when it comes to dietary advice.
Avoid carbs. Only eat carbs. Eat like a caveman. Eat this strange ectoplasmic goop.
It brings us pleasure, then, to report that one particularly troublesome pillar of the diet industrial complex is crumbling under the weight of evidence (or lack thereof).
According to a Cochrane review article published on Monday, there is relatively scant reason to believe that intermittent fasting is at all effective, either compared to regular dietary advice or compared to no intervention at all.
The review, which analysed evidence from 22 randomised clinical trials, looked specifically at weight loss, quality of life and adverse events in populations of overweight or obese adults.
Intermittent fasting, for the blissfully uninitiated, is an eating pattern during which people may consume their entire daily caloric window within a specific time window, or they may eat normally one day and completely fast the next.
It commonly takes the form of time-restricted feeding, where daily food intake is limited to an eight-hour period and the overnight fast is extended to 14 hours or more.
Not that this humble scribe has ever deigned to seriously give intermittent fasting a shot, but given that she gets out of sorts if she doesn’t get a sweet treat whenever she feels she needs a sweet treat, it probably would not go well.
The idea behind intermittent fasting is that, during fasting periods, triglycerides are broken down into fatty acids and glycerol, which are then converted to ketone bodies by the liver, which provides a significant source of energy for many tissues during fasting, and promotes fat loss.
It also theoretically affects the circadian rhythms, which regulate the production of metabolites and hormones such as cortisol, insulin and glucagon, which in turn affect body weight and composition.
In all, the Cochrane review found that intermittent fasting had no clinically meaningful effect on weight loss compared to both standard dietary advice (e.g., restricting calories or eating different types of food) and to no intervention at all.
There was no difference in quality of life compared to people given standard dietary advice, and not enough evidence either way for people given no intervention at all.
Study lead author Dr Luis Garegnani said while intermittent fasting “may be a reasonable option for some people”, the evidence did not justify the social media hype.
Have a healthy, well-balanced story tip? Send it to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
