SLIM? NOT SO ‘FAST!’

Flaws of no-eat diet

Restriction is a losing game.

Turns out that restricting the time frame in which you eat is no better than restricting calories when it comes to losing weight.

A new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that those who participated in intermittent fasting and ate all of their calories within an eight-hour window lost the same amount of weight as those who ate whenever they wanted but counted calories.

Researchers at the University of Colorado enlisted 90 adults to take part in a trial and divided them into groups.

One group was allowed to eat whatever they wanted but only between noon and 8 p.m.; the second could eat whenever they wanted but restricted their caloric intake by 25%; finally, a control group, whose existing routines were not changed, was monitored against the previous two.

Experimental participants successfully stuck to their assigned diets and did not report any adverse side effects from either.

Compared to the control group, those that restricted calories but did not restrict the time frame consumed 405 fewer calories a day and lost about 12 more pounds on average after one year. Those who participated in intermittent fasting consumed 425 fewer calories per day and lost about 10 more pounds.

Previous findings support the new study, suggesting that calorie counting is still the most effective way to drop unwanted pounds.

“Time-restricted eating (TRE) has become a popular weight-loss regimen,” dietitian and lead study author Shuhao Lin said. “The sudden increase in popularity of TRE is most likely due to its sheer simplicity and the fact that it does not require persons to count calories to lose weight.”

Celeb craze

TRE is another name for intermittent fasting, the popular diet trend that celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Cameron Diaz and Mark Wahlberg practice.

It involves only eating during a specific time frame, switching between fasting and eating on a regular schedule, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

There are two different subcategories of the intermittent fasting diet. With the 16:8 diet, one would eat for eight hours a day and fast for 16. There’s also the 5:2 diet, which involves eating normally for five days of the week and limiting yourself to one 500- to 600-calorie meal the other two days.

Proponents of the 16:8 intermittent fasting diet believe that it improves control of blood sugar, enhances brain function and increases life span.

However, this practice can also lead people to overeat during the eighthour period, causing them to inevitably gain weight.