Intermittent fasting ‘no magic bullet for weight loss’ says new study
New CNEM research from suggests that if you want to lose weight, intermittent fasting such as the 5:2 diet might be less effective than many people believe.
New research published this week challenges a popular belief that intermittent fasting diets such as alternate day fasting or the ‘5:2’ are the most effective ways to lose weight.
Over recent years, diets which see people fast on a few days each week have increased in popularity, reinforced by images of people’s miraculous weight transformations and backed by celebrity endorsements.
However, evidence to date about the effectiveness of fasting compared with more traditional diets which aim to reduce calorie intake over the course of a full week has been limited.
Published in the prestigious journal Science Translational Medicine, the new study from a team of physiologists at the University of Bath builds this evidence and indicates that there is ‘nothing special’ about fasting.
Participants in their randomised control trial lost less weight when fasting in comparison with those following a traditional diet – even when their calorie intake was the same overall.
