Scientists reveal a diet that beats intermittent fasting and cutting calories in new study

With people becoming more and more health conscious, diets that aid in weight loss are becoming popular and are being followed by thousands. These include dietitian-suggested practices like intermittent fasting and social media viral cutting calories.Now, in a new study published by The BMJ, scientists have revealed a dietary practice that beats both methods for weight loss. According to them, alternate-day fasting works better at boosting metabolism than these methods.Nearly 2.5 billion of the global adult population is overweight with around 890 million being obese, as per the World Health Organization. For this segment of people, doctors recommend weight loss that reduces metabolic risks such as high blood pressure, heightened cholesterol and increased levels of blood sugar, all of which lead to diabetes and heart disease.Intermittent fasting is a method of dieting which involves cycling between periods of eating and fasting on a regular schedule. It is typically recommended as an alternative to calorie-restricted diets for weight loss.Alternative fasting is a method of intermittent fasting that suggests fasting on alternate days, which means a 24-hour fast every other day.

In the study, researchers analysed the results of 99 randomised clinical trials involving 6,582 adult men and women to compare the effects of intermittent fasting diets with continuous calorie restriction or unrestricted diets on body weight and metabolic risk factors.

The participants had an average BMI of 31 and nearly 90% of them had a pre-existing health condition.The results suggested that alternate-day fasting was the only dietary strategy that produced modest benefits in reducing body weight when compared to the other two methods. It showed a small reduction in body weight as compared to the two other methods.It was also more effective in lowering levels of LDL or bad cholesterol when compared to time-restricted eating. However, these differences didn't reach the minimally important clinical threshold of at least 2 kg weight loss for individuals with obesity, as defined by the study authors.The study aims at positioning alternate day fasting as an additional option to therapeutic repertoire, said researchers from Colombia in a linked editorial.