Medical updates: The phrase “intermittent fasting” refers to a number of different meal timing plans that alternate between periods of voluntary fasting and non-fasting. Alternate-day fasting, periodic fasting, and time-restricted meals every day are all examples of intermittent fasting techniques.
Although “time-restricted eating patterns,” also known as intermittent fasting, are well-liked, senior study author Wendy L. Bennett, M.D., M.P.H., an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, claims that rigorously designed studies have not yet established whether limiting the total eating window during the day aids in weight control.
This study assessed the relationship between weight change and the interval between the first and last meals. The study included over 550 participants (18 years old or older) from three health systems with electronic health records in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In the two years prior to the study’s enrollment period, participants had at least one weight measurement and one height measurement documented (Feb.-July 2019).
The majority of participants (80%) self-identified as white adults; 12% as Black adults; and about 3% as Asian adults. The majority of participants claimed to have a bachelor’s degree or higher; the average participant was 51 years; and the average body mass index was 30.8, which is regarded as being obese. The electronic health record’s weight data had an average follow-up period of 6.3 years.
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Participants with a higher BMI at enrolment were more likely to be Black adults, older, to have Type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure, to have a lower education level, to exercise less, to consume fewer fruits and vegetables, to have a longer duration from last mealtime to sleep and a shorter length from first to last meal, as compared to people with a lower BMI.
The Daily24 smartphone app was developed by the research team to allow participants to log their sleeping, eating, and waking up schedules for each 24-hour period in real-time. Participants were urged to use the app as often as possible during the first month and again during “power weeks,” which were one week each month for the six-month intervention section of the study. This encouragement came in the form of emails, texts, and in-app notifications.
Researchers were able to measure the following things based on the timing of sleeping and eating each day as reported in the mobile app:
- the time from the first meal to the last meal each day;
- the time lapse from waking to first meal; and
- the interval from the last meal to sleep. For every participant, they calculated an average based on all the completed day data. The data analysis found:
- During the six-year follow-up period, meal timing was not related to weight change. This spans the time from the first to the final meal, from waking up to the first meal, from the last meal to going to sleep, and the overall amount of sleep. Also read this:https://medicalupdates.in/2022/11/02/how-intermittent-fasting-affects-female-hormones/
- Over the course of a six-year follow-up, consuming more large meals (estimated to contain more than 1,000 calories) and medium meals (estimated to contain 500–1,000 calories) was linked to an increase in weight, whereas eating fewer small meals (estimated to contain less than 500 calories) was linked to an increase in weight.
- The average time between the first and last meal was 11.5 hours; the average time between waking up and the first meal was 1.6 hours; the average time between the last meal and bedtime was 4 hours; and the average amount of time spent sleeping was 7.5 hours.
- In a group with a wide variety of body weights, the study failed to find a relationship between meal timing and weight change. According to Bennett, this study in a large group with a wide range of body weights did not find a connection between intermittent fasting and improved body rhythms and metabolism regulation. Even short-term intervention studies may be helpful to inform future recommendations because it is extremely difficult to conduct large-scale, thorough clinical trials of intermittent fasting on long-term weight change.
Although the study indicated that meal frequency and total calorie intake were higher risk factors for weight change than meal timing, the data could not prove direct cause and effect, according to main study author Di Zhao, Ph.D., an associate scientist in the division of cardiovascular and clinical epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
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Because they did not examine the intricate relationships between time and frequency of eating, researchers acknowledge that the study has limitations. Furthermore, because the study was observational in design, the scientists were unable to draw any conclusions on cause and effect. Since the bulk of the study’s participants were educated white women from the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, future research should strive to include a more diverse population, the authors noted.
Additionally, researchers were unable to determine whether study participants had lost weight on purpose before to recruitment and could not rule out the possibility that they had any preexisting medical issues.
According to American Heart Association figures from 2022, 40% of adults in the U.S. are obese. To lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, the Association now recommends lowering total calorie intake, consuming healthy meals, and increasing physical exercise.
Frequent small meals or intermittent fasting were not explicitly recommended in the 2017 American Heart Association scientific statement Meal Timing and Frequency: Implications for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. It was discovered that inconsistent patterns of total calorie consumption seemed to be worse for maintaining body weight and having a healthy heart. Additionally, changing meal frequency might not help with reducing body weight or enhancing conventional cardiometabolic risk factors.
