A new study questions certain purported benefits of intermittent fasting and finds no link between meal timing and long-term weight loss potential in people. Meal frequency and amount were associated with small changes in body weight.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health recruited adult patients from one of three major healthcare systems and used an app (“Daily 24”) to track their sleep and diet for up to six months. reported habits. These reports were used as a barometer of people’s daily eating and sleeping behavior. Researchers also tracked the volunteers’ health status, including weight, before and after study initiation through electronic medical records. About 550 people used the app during the study period, and researchers were able to track their weight for an average of six years.
The team found no significant association between meal timing and annual changes in body weight in the study sample. People did not lose or gain significantly more weight on average than those who did not. It was published Wednesday in the American Heart Association Journal.
This type of study is known as an observational study and can only be used to find correlations between two variables, not necessarily causal relationships.In particular, this study did not measure what happens to people who decide to start intermittent fasting anew, but rather the impact someone’s regular diet may have on their weight over time. We were measuring an effect. It was published Last April, when we tracked how people started dieting, we found that intermittent fasting may not make you lose as much weight as your regular eating schedule.
“Based on other published studies, including ours, we’re starting to think that the timing of meals in the day is unlikely to lead to immediate weight loss,” said lead author and associate professor of medicine. says Wendy Bennett. of General Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Said CNN.
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Bennett and other researchers studying this topic found that their resultsdoes not necessarily exclude that intermittent fasting is possible There are some unique positives. Some populations, such as those with type 2 diabetes, may experience greater weight loss than during fasting. Also, for some people, intermittent fasting may simply be easier or preferred as a way to track their meals.
Still, for those trying to lose weight, these findings suggest there are other patterns to watch out for than timing. Eaters were found to gain a moderate amount of weight over time (on average, up to 2 pounds per year in relation to their extra meal per day). Eating smaller meals was associated with annual weight loss.
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