Lose Weight: How Well Does Intermittent Fasting Really Work?
Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.
More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.Intermittent fasting is the current trend in diet. Some go without food for a day, others rely on the less radical “16: 8 fasting”.
That means eating only eight hours a day and then taking a total calorie break for 16 hours. So also: no milk coffee and no juice. For example, if you have your last meal at 6 p.m., you can start eating your cereal again the next morning from ten o'clock.
Researchers led by Krista Varady from the University of Illinois in Chicago have investigated whether intermittent fasting actually helps you lose weight. To do this, they put 23 obese subjects with an average BMI of 35 on interval fasting.
Three percent body weight in twelve weeks
After twelve weeks, the participants had lost an average of three percent of their body weight. In addition, due to the time limit on eating, they had consumed a total of 350 kilocalories less per day than usual. So, after the long hours of fasting, they had not, as one might assume, so joyfully arrived that they ended up eating more. Her blood pressure values also improved. They decreased by an average of 7 mm / Hg.
Eat and drink what you like
What is impressive about the method is that, apart from the time window, there are no further restrictions: Everyone eats and drinks what they like. "So there are options for losing weight that don't involve counting calories or having to go without certain foods," says study director Varady. “That is easier for people.” That is why fewer participants would have dropped out than is often the case with diet studies.
Not a miracle cure
As positive as the trend is, intermittent fasting is apparently not a miracle cure for losing weight either. Three percent body weight in twelve weeks: This is good for the body, but certainly not what those who want to lose weight hope for.
Refraining from changing your diet
However, this may also have to do with the fundamental downside of the strategy: Those who eat unhealthily beforehand will keep this eating behavior. Nutritionists always preach that losing weight is all about changing your diet.
Increased metabolism
There are several explanations why intermittent fasting works in principle. In addition to the simple effect of saving calories, longer periods without calorie intake have a positive effect on the metabolism. The body is forced to fall back on its energy reserves and fat burning is boosted.
Rejuvenated body cells
But that's not all: Another keyword that often comes up when it comes to fasting is autophagy. This is a kind of healthy cell-level self-cannibalism. The cells burn their outdated or defective components. The body recycles and rejuvenates itself, as it were. Autophagy kicks in particularly in times of hunger: This is how the cells gain energy and release urgently needed building materials.
Even if intermittent fasting does not provide the diet miracle, the strategy could make a difference in terms of cellular rejuvenation.
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