Intermittent fasting may be easier to sustain than standard calorie counting for people caught in a cycle of losing weight and putting it back on, new research from the University of Adelaide suggests.
A trial published in the journal Clinical Nutrition reached the conclusion after tracking not just how much weight participants shed but how each approach affected their eating patterns, mood, sleep and quality of life.
The study included more than 200 adults with obesity over an 18-month period - all of whom were split into three groups.
The first followed intermittent fasting, continuous calorie restriction or standard care with healthy-eating advice.
The difficulty of sticking to diets makes long-term weight loss more challenging
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The fasting group ate 30 per cent of their daily energy needs between 8am and midday on three non-consecutive days a week, followed by a 20-hour fast, eating normally on the remaining days.
The calorie-restriction group cut their usual intake by around 30 per cent every day.
After six months, both the fasting and calorie-restricted groups had shed roughly seven kilograms on average, compared to just two kilograms in the standard-care group.
Both groups also saw improvements in depression and their overall wellbeing, including on fasting days themselves.
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Despite obtaining comparable results, the two groups described very different experiences.
Calorie counters said they had to consciously limit their intake and resist overeating throughout - a sense of ongoing self-control that researchers calculated accounted for roughly 15 per cent of their weight loss.
Fasting participants, by contrast, did not feel they were constantly tracking calories or fighting the urge to overeat to get similar results.
Professor Leonie Heilbronn, from Adelaide University School of Medicine and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, said: “While many diets can result in weight loss, they may be difficult to stick to and this makes keeping that weight off long-term more challenging.
“The results of our study indicate intermittent fasting could offer an alternative pathway for people who find conventional dieting challenging.
Calorie counters have to consciously limit their intake and resist overeating
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She went on: “Psychological and behavioural effects have a major influence on people’s ability to adhere to diets.
“Intermittent fasting may help people achieve weight loss through ways that are less dependent on consciously restricting intake.”