Hi guys!
A new weight loss study about time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting (IF), is getting a LOT of buzz. Let’s talk about it!
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the study followed 139 participants as they adhered to a calorie-restricted diet for one year. Men ate 1500-1800 calories per day, while women ate 1200-1500 calories. One group of participants ate with no time restrictions, while the other could only eat between 8am and 4pm.
They kept food diaries, took pictures of their meals, and met with coaches regularly, which sounds intense but was probably necessary to ensure they were compliant with study guidelines.
The objective was to see if time-restricted eating boosted weight loss compared to calorie restriction alone.
What happened? Both groups lost the same amount of weight.
Yep. Both groups lost somewhere around 15 pounds after one year. There also wasn’t a significant difference in changes in waist circumference, BMI, body fat, blood pressure, and other measures of metabolic risk between the two groups.
This is the first long term look at intermittent fasting and weight loss.
This isn’t the first study pertaining to IF, and it’s not likely the first time you’ve seen an article debating how effective it is for weight loss. However, previous studies on IF have been short term, had small sample sizes, or a less than ideal design. This is the first study to give a long term look at whether or not IF is an effective eating style for weight loss.
At first, I felt pretty indifferent about this study because to me, the results weren’t shocking. IMO, everything comes down to calorie balance, which is exactly what these results suggest. But I didn’t feel the urge to run to Instagram to flaunt the results and shout “I TOLD YOU SO” to the world. There’s actually a lot more we can unpack from this study and learn from, which is why I’m writing about it now.
Let’s dig a little deeper!
Source by www.blogilates.com