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Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680567/
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/fu..._pub%3Dpubmed&
As usual I'll play devil's advocate.
Intermittent fasting is a fad. It may come out that it has all the great effects that it purports, but right now the research is only just at the beginning stages. Many articles are using animal models, many are using 'alternate day' fasting, and many are of poor quality and lack comparisons to simple caloric restriction models.
As with all dieting advice, the number one question comes down to: can you maintain it? Dieting is pointless if it's temporal. 95% of people just gain the weight back weeks to months later. Not to mention, the second review article says:
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I don't do ADF, but time-restricted fasting. And absolutely, if you only do something temporarily then go back to your old, crappy ways, it stands to reason you'll return to the state you were in before. People who talk about changes to their diet as though it's a temporary thing are the ones who find themselves disappointed in their results, then justifying it by prattling on about how "only 5% of people who diet succeed in keeping the weight off", well no kidding. Diet should be short-hand for 'dietary lifestyle', ie: something permanent, and not "I'm on a diet" where the insinuation is that it's a dramatic temporary measure to reach a goal.
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Originally Posted by TheSutterDynasty
So..
#1. You must still operate at a caloric deficit to lose weight. This means that you can't 'over-binge' when you actually do eat. Does this type of diet increase your risk to engage in unhealthy binge eating behaviors?
#2. Is it any easier to maintain an intermittent fasting meal plan then it is a regular meal plan?
#3. Are the metabolic markers of disease changing because of the fasting or because of the caloric deficit in these studies?
#4. What are the (currently un-qualified) other effects? Sleep, ability to gain muscle mass, fatigue, mental acuity, etc?
It's definitely good to see people engaging in better (maybe?) healthy behaviors that they may not have, but we've seen these types of diets come around (Atkin's was huge) without being very sustainable.
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1. I have not seen any evidence yet that suggests intermittent fasting promotes any sort of disordered eating. On the subject of caloric deficits, you'll find no argument from me on that. CICO matters, no matter what silver-tongued miracle-diet pushers tell you.
2. I think that's a subjective thing. Two things about me, I don't particularly like eating first thing in the morning, and I like having filling meals, so IF is easy to maintain for me because it ticks both of those boxes. I led a healthy lifestyle before I started IF (I used ketosis with calorie restriction and exercise to lose a ton of weight, then what I learned from that process along with exercise to maintain it -- I now use ketosis for cutting), and I continue to lead one now that I'm doing IF. I see it as a way to help me achieve my goals and enjoy doing it.
3. Good question, and one that I'll agree warrants more investigation. Our reliance on animal models is necessary to at least allow us to justify investment into human studies. One problem with human studies is that it's hard to guarantee compliance.
4. One of the PubMed articles linked by the Fitocracy wiki notes that it appears that IF is better for retention of muscle mass during weight loss compared to calorie restriction alone. (
source) I would wager that is due to the body entering ketosis during the later stages of the fasting period, mobilizing fat stores.
As for Atkins, ketogenic diets (<20g carbs/day, the 'induction phase' of Atkins, basically) are gaining huge traction in treating severely obese patients, reducing and in many cases all but eliminating Type II diabetes. Sustainability varies, I found it easy to sub out carbs for more veggies, but if you're a vegan/vegetarian, you're going to find a ketogenic diet unsustainable due to the reliance on fat-rich protein-moderate food sources that aren't also teeming with non-dietary fiber carbohydrates.
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Originally Posted by sa226
1. Its interesting that in many of the published "plans" it allows black coffee during the fasting, when the science behind the time window eating forbids anything other than water because that jump starts your system.
2. I'm not discounting this as a "fad" but I wonder if its popularity is a result of pretty well understood science like calories in calories out and "don't have midnight snacks" and combining that with human psychology. I don't thinks its much of a cooincidence that the most popular method is basically the breakfast skipping one. Many people do that already and its probably the easiest one to skip. For me it is anyway.
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1. If you're fasting for something like a blood test, that's something different, because it can upset your body's pH and fluid imbalance. I'm seeing conflicting data on whether or not black coffee has any negative effects on the fasting.
2. You're probably not wrong; I think people are always looking for effective tools for a particular task, and if it works, why not.