Sunday, October 4, 2009

Intermittent Fasting - more research

I've written a fair bit in the past about intermittent fasting, usually pointing to Brad Pilon's book Eat Stop Eat as a great introduction and explanation. (Though the results produced by Martin are worth noting)

Here is a new bit of research. The fast day here isn't even a full fast, just 25% of normal similar to the Up Day Down Diet I've also mentioned before.



Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults.

BACKGROUND: The ability of modified alternate-day fasting (ADF; ie, consuming 25% of energy needs on the fast day and ad libitum food intake on the following day) to facilitate weight loss and lower vascular disease risk in obese individuals remains unknown.
OBJECTIVE: This study examined the effects of ADF that is administered under controlled compared with self-implemented conditions on body weight and coronary artery disease (CAD) risk indicators in obese adults.
DESIGN: Sixteen obese subjects (12 women, 4 men) completed a 10-wk trial, which consisted of 3 phases: 1) a 2-wk control phase, 2) a 4-wk weight loss/ADF controlled food intake phase, and 3) a 4-wk weight loss/ADF self-selected food intake phase.
RESULTS: Dietary adherence remained high throughout the controlled food intake phase (days adherent: 86%) and the self-selected food intake phase (days adherent: 89%). The rate of weight loss remained constant during controlled food intake (0.67 +/- 0.1 kg/wk) and self-selected food intake phases (0.68 +/- 0.1 kg/wk). Body weight decreased (P < 0.001) by 5.6 +/- 1.0 kg (5.8 +/- 1.1%) after 8 wk of diet. Percentage body fat decreased (P < 0.01) from 45 +/- 2% to 42 +/- 2%. Total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and triacylglycerol concentrations were lowered (P < 0.01) by 21 +/- 4%, 25 +/- 10%, and 32 +/- 6%, respectively, after 8 wk of ADF, whereas HDL cholesterol remained unchanged. Systolic blood pressure decreased (P < 0.05) from 124 +/- 5 to 116 +/- 3 mm Hg.
CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that ADF is a viable diet option to help obese individuals lose weight and decrease CAD risk. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as UIC-004-2009.

1 comment:

Mary Titus said...

I have been fasting on a daily basis for 2 1/2 years. I began slowly. In other words, I ate breakfast progressively later each day until I was able to go until 2:00 PM before eating my first meal of the day.That was basically a 20 hour fast with a 4 hour eating window. Now I basically eat no more than twice a day and I alternate that with days where I eat just once. I slowly but surely lost 30 lbs in those 2+ years. Might seem slow but I am only 10 lbs from goal.

One thing that I have noticed is that I can keep my weight down during menses especially when I eat one meal a day. Actually, if it were something dable, I would try and eat one meal every other day during this time of month. Guys, I don't care if this is TMI, it is important.

Since beginning IF I have concluded that reducing meal frequencies aids the body to fully digest its contents, moving things along to increase regularity.I came to this conclusion because soon after I eat my fast-breaking meal, I have to visit the BR.Can you tell, I am very happy with IF. I am stronger on IF even though I do not do a drop of weight training.