New research reveals easier alternatives to intermittent fasting: Sciencealert

A is not the only one who is intermittent fasting A handy tool for weight lossIt is also shown that he has Many benefits for metabolic health – It has nothing to do with weight loss. However, many people may find intermittent fasting a challenge, especially if they follow the 5:2 version of the diet, where calories are strictly restricted two days a week.

but My latest research It shows that there is no need to strictly limit calories to obtain metabolic benefits from intermittent fasting. Just limiting the number of carbohydrates you eat twice a week can be enough to improve your metabolic health.

Intermittent fasting seems to be extremely beneficial for health, due to the way it changes our metabolism.

After meals, our bodies enter a post-meal state. In this state, our metabolism uses carbohydrates for immediate energy, storing some of these carbohydrates and fats for later use.

However, after a few hours without food, in a state of “fasting” after absorption, our metabolism will use part of our fat storehouse for energy.

In this regard, intermittent fasting ensures a better balance between the sources used for energy. This leads to Improved metabolism flexibilitylinked Better cardio-metabolic health.

In other words, this means lower risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, and type 2 Diabetes.

My colleague and I previously Fast Effect On the body. We observed that the body is better at removing and burning fat from the next day's full English breakfast both on a day of fasting or severe calorie restriction (eating only about 25% of each person's daily calorie requirements).

Fasting has shifted the body from carbohydrate use to fat use. This effect was performed both on fasting and the next day.

Our research We also compared the effects of intermittent fasting with calorie-tuned or calorie-restricted diets. Both groups followed their diet until they lost 5% of their body weight.

Both groups lost 5% of their body weight, and the intermittent fasting group at the same rate had significantly improved metabolic treatment, similar to what we saw in previous trials.

Other researchers Those who compared the effects of the 5:2 variant of intermittent fasting diets with a calorie-adjusted calorie-restricted diet found that fasting was beneficial for metabolic health.

Metabolic Health Benefits

But why is it precisely intermittent fasting? Very beneficial for metabolic health? This is the question I tried to answer My latest research.

For those following a 5:2 intermittent fasting diet, a typical fasting day is by its nature very low in calories, equivalent to several hundred calories per day. People burn very few calories on fasting, which also means they have very few carbohydrates.

Given that post-meal conditions are governed by carbohydrate availability, this called for questions as to whether calorie restriction or carbohydrate restriction is what produces metabolic effects during intermittent fasting.

We recruited 12 overweight and obese participants. Participants were one day fed a very low carb diet. Another day they were given a severely calorie-restricted diet (about 75% fewer calories than they normally eat).

After each day of fasting, we gave them a high-fat, high-sugar meal (similar to English breakfast) to see how easily their bodies burned fat.

What we found was that the fat burning and the transition to improved fat treatment in a high-calorie diet was roughly the same following both traditional calorie-restricted “fast” and low-carb days. In other words, limiting carbohydrates can elicit the same favourable metabolic effects as fasting.

It will be important to conduct more studies using a larger cohort of participants to confirm these findings.

Such findings may help address some of the practical problems faced with intermittent fasting and traditional low-carb diets.

In the case of intermittent fasting diets, severe calorie restriction on fasting days may increase Risk of nutritional deficiency If you are not careful. It could also be a trigger A messy meal.

So is strict carbohydrate restrictions Sticking in the long term is challengingand may lead to Unhealthy fear of carbohydrates.

Another limitation of both intermittent fasting and continuous carbohydrate restrictions is that weight loss is likely a consequence. Therefore, these approaches are not universally beneficial for those who need to improve their health without losing weight, or for those who are looking Maintain weight.

We are currently testing the feasibility of an intermittent carb restriction diet or low carb 5:2. So instead of limiting calories two days a week, limit the number of carbohydrates you consume twice a week.

If this has proven beneficial, it offers the benefits of fasting without limiting calories on a “fast” day.

Adam CollinsAssociate Professor of Nutrition, Surrey University

This article has been republished conversation Under the Creative Commons license. Please read Original article.