By Arthur A. Burley 
Intermittent fasting has become a hot topic in my clinic. It’s easy to understand: limit the food you eat but normally eat within that time frame. No calorie counting. There are no food restrictions. It’s simple and flexible. Intermittent fasting is a popular way to lose weight in a busy world.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting (IF) is a general term that refers to one of the most important aspects of our dietary patterns: timing. Intermittent fasting is a way to increase the time that your body experiences fasting. This is done by decreasing the “eating window”.
What can time-restricted eating do to help weight loss?
Consider a fed state which promotes cellular growth and a fasted one that stimulates cell breakdown and repair. Both can be good or bad, depending on the context. Consider how cell growth creates lean muscle mass and also causes cancer. Many genes that control our metabolism (how we eat and use the energy it provides) are activated and turned off according to our circadian rhythms (our night/wake cycle).
After our last meal, we transitioned from a hungry state to an early fasted one. This takes between five and six hours. This happens when the sun sets, our metabolism slows down, and we go to sleep. In our modern world, with its artificial lighting, convenience stores and Door Dash, we are always hungry. We eat at all hours of the day, rather than following our circadian cues.
There is a lot of research that shows your body can reap many benefits from fasting, both in animal models and in human trials. This is due to its effect on cell processes and function. Your metabolism switches from glucose to ketones as its primary fuel source, which causes a host cellular signalling that triggers cell repair and recycling and dampens cell growth. Exposure to a fasted environment repeatedly can cause cellular adaptations such as increased insulin sensitivity, antioxidant defences and mitochondrial function.
It is possible that fasting could help lower diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. Multiple short-term clinical studies have shown that intermittent fasting, specifically time-restricted eating, can improve markers of cardiometabolic and metabolic health.
Intermittent fasting is a reliable strategy for weight loss?
The quality of evidence has been inconsistent. It often includes small sample sizes, short intervention times, different study designs (often without control groups), and participants of varying sizes and shapes. Studies that use intermittent fasting’s time-restricted eating method to lose weight have dominated the data. An latest compilation of evidence suggests that you might lose a few extra pounds by limiting your eating time.
Research on IF as a weight loss tool has been published
We need to compare a time-restricted diet with calorie-restricted food to determine the impact on weight loss. The recent results of a yearlong BMIs between 28 to 45. It also excluded those who were currently participating in weight-loss programs or taking medications that can affect calorie intake or weight. Participants were required to eat a 25 percent calorie-reduced diet (1,000 to 1,800 calories for men, 1,200 to 1,500 for women), with a fixed ratio of calories from fat, protein, and carbs. Participants were asked to weigh their food and take photos of the food. They were also required to use a mobile app to record the times they ate. This was done to verify that they were following the diet.