Intermittent fasting (decreasing the variety of hours of consumption and prolonging the hours of fasting every day) is an efficient technique for shedding pounds and improves cardiovascular well being in individuals with weight problems issues. Credit score: College of Granada
A crew of scientists has proven that intermittent fasting (decreasing the variety of hours of consumption and increasing the hours of fasting every day) is an efficient technique for shedding pounds and improves cardiovascular well being in individuals with weight problems issues.
Their work, printed in Nature Drugs, reveals that consuming the final meal earlier than 5 p.m. after which not consuming dinner at night time is a protected and efficient technique for decreasing subcutaneous belly fats, i.e., the fats just below the pores and skin, particularly after intervals of extra similar to Christmas.
In Spain, the prevalence of chubby and weight problems reaches 70% in males and 50% in girls, which is related to a number of metabolic problems similar to kind 2 diabetes. This exponentially will increase the danger of growing cardiovascular illnesses, hypertension and sure kinds of most cancers. This alarming weight acquire within the inhabitants not solely impacts individuals’s high quality of life, but in addition represents a serious problem for the general public well being system.
Scientific analysis is working exhausting to implement efficient but easy methods to deal with this drawback, which is now thought of a illness.
Calorie restriction diets assist weight reduction and enhance cardiovascular well being. Nonetheless, they don’t seem to be simple to keep up in the long run, and sometimes result in most individuals finally dropping out of therapy and regaining weight misplaced, and even gaining greater than their beginning weight.
Confronted with the difficulties of sustaining adherence to conventional calorie restrictions, new dietary methods are rising. One in all these is intermittent fasting, which consists of alternating intervals of consuming with intervals of fasting starting from hours to days. One kind of intermittent fasting that has gained reputation lately is that which reduces the variety of hours of consumption and extends the hours of fasting every day. This is called time-restricted consuming.
Usually, in Spain, individuals have their first breakfast at 7–8 a.m. and dinner at 9–10 p.m., so that they have a 12–14 hour window of consumption. In any such intermittent fasting, the consumption window is diminished from 12–14 hours to six–8 hours, and folks quick for 16–18 hours. This dietary technique helps to keep up a every day cycle of consuming and fasting, which stabilizes our physique’s organic rhythms. We all know that consuming irregularly or at night time disrupts these rhythms and will increase the danger of weight problems, heart problems and kind 2 diabetes.
The researchers investigated the results of a 12-week intervention with three totally different fasting methods: early fasting (consumption window: roughly 9:00–17:00), late fasting (roughly 14:00–22:00), and self-selected fasting, the place individuals might choose the time slot wherein they needed to eat, and did so on common between 12am and 8pm.
Modifications in VAT, physique weight and composition after intervention. Credit score: Nature Drugs (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03375-y
As well as, all individuals taking part within the research additionally obtained the usual therapy, which consisted of a vitamin schooling program on the Mediterranean weight loss plan and wholesome life. On this randomized, managed, multicenter trial, performed in Granada (southern Spain) and Pamplona (northern Spain) and one of many largest to this point, a complete of 197 individuals (50% girls) aged 30–60 years participated.
Individuals had been randomly assigned to one of many following teams: therapy as ordinary (49 individuals), early fasting (49 individuals), late fasting (52 individuals), or self-selected fasting (47 individuals).
This research was a part of the doctoral thesis of Manuel Dote-Montero, who’s presently a postdoctoral fellow on the Nationwide Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Ailments (NIDDK) in america.
Dote-Montero, along with Antonio Clavero Jimeno, a pre-doctoral researcher on the UGR, and Elisa Merchán Ramírez, a postdoctoral researcher on the UGR, point out that it’s unclear whether or not the timing of the consumption window—early, late or self-selected—could have a special impact on weight reduction, visceral fats (i.e. fats surrounding organs within the belly space) or total cardiovascular well being in people who find themselves chubby or overweight.
The outcomes of the research reveal that intermittent fasting confirmed no further advantages over a vitamin schooling program in decreasing visceral fats. Nonetheless, the fasting teams, whatever the timing of consumption, achieved better weight reduction—on common 3–4 kg—in comparison with the same old therapy group, which continued with their consumption window of no less than 12 hours. Notably, the early fasting group diminished belly subcutaneous fats to a better extent.
The research additionally assessed fasting and 24-hour glucose ranges utilizing a steady glucose monitor worn by individuals for 14 days earlier than and on the finish of the intervention. The outcomes present that the early fasting group considerably improved fasting glucose ranges and in a single day glucose in comparison with the opposite teams.
Regulating glucose
These findings recommend that early fasting could also be particularly helpful in optimizing glucose regulation, which can assist forestall diabetes and enhance metabolic well being. By not consuming at night time permits the physique extra time to digest and course of vitamins, higher regulation of blood glucose is facilitated, thus decreasing the danger of growing sugar issues and different metabolic problems, says Dr. Idoia Labayen, principal investigator of the research in Pamplona and member of CIBEROBN along with Dr. Jonatan Ruiz and Dr. Manuel Muñoz (CIBERFES).
The researchers stress that each one the fasting teams had a excessive adherence charge and no severe opposed occasions had been recorded. Intermittent fasting is due to this fact introduced as a protected and promising technique for managing physique weight and enhancing cardiovascular well being in people who find themselves chubby or overweight. This data might be essential for enhancing the efficacy of dietary interventions in such populations.
Extra data:
Manuel Dote-Montero et al, Results of early, late and self-selected time-restricted consuming on visceral adipose tissue and cardiometabolic well being in individuals with chubby or weight problems: a randomized managed trial, Nature Drugs (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03375-y
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Intermittent fasting aids weight reduction and boosts coronary heart well being in weight problems, research finds (2025, January 8)
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