Here’s who might benefit from intermittent fasting: study
Don’t wait until the 11th hour to sit down for dinner.
Adults with metabolic syndrome may benefit from limiting their daily eating to an eight- to 10-hour window, according to a new study — the latest research to support intermittent fasting.
Researchers from the Salk Institute and the University of California at San Diego divided 108 prediabetic adults with metabolic syndrome into two groups.
Metabolic syndrome is a group of health conditions that include high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels and abdominal obesity.
More than a third of Americans and more than 1 billion people worldwide have this collection of conditions, which raises the risk of diabetes, heart disease and/or stroke.
Study participants in the first group received nutrition counseling and were told to continue their eating patterns.
The second group was given the same nutritional recommendations but was assigned a personalized eight- to 10-hour eating window.
For three months, participants logged their daily eating times in the myCircadianClock app developed by Salk researchers.
The study authors analyzed the data and found that the intermittent fasting group lost more fat and had better blood sugar control than the other group.
The average eating window for the fasting group was from 9:14 a.m. to 6:59 p.m.
Only one person in the fasting group reported bad side effects such as irritability, fatigue and difficulty concentrating, the researchers say.
They are calling for larger studies that further explore the effects of intermittent fasting but say time-restricted eating is “an effective practical lifestyle intervention.”
Their findings were published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
“This particular study, though small, has shown us what we’ve known all along,” Stephanie Schiff, a registered dietitian nutritionist at Northwell Health’s Huntington Hospital, told The Post.
“Standard one-size-fits-all nutrition counseling by itself does not have the impact of individualized and personalized counseling, especially when combined with a lifestyle method that research has long shown has many beneficial outcomes,” she said.
Schiff, who was not involved in the new research, says that intermittent fasting and nutrition counseling that considers sleep habits, food preferences, physical activity and even the timing of sunrise and sunset can be a way to improve cardiovascular health, blood sugar management and weight loss.
Prior intermittent fasting research has yielded mixed results. Some studies have tied the diet plan to weight loss, a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, reduced inflammation and improved cholesterol.
But medical experts have cautioned that intermittent fasting is not for everyone. One major study found that those who limit their eating to less than eight hours a day are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease than people who eat in a 12- to 16-hour window.
