There’s Nothing Magical About Intermittent Fasting
New study shows time-restricted eating can cause weight loss, but no more than a healthy diet
In a blow to the latest dietary darling, a recent study found that people who practiced time-restricted eating (also known as intermittent fasting) didn’t experience any significant weight loss compared to a control group. The paper undermines one of the most popular and seemingly simplest diet and optimization fads of the past decade — eat whatever you want during a specific time window, and you’ll lose weight, achieve mental clarity, and simplify your life.
“It seemed like the ideal intervention,” says Ethan Weiss, MD, lead author of the new study and an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco Cardiovascular Research Institute. “It was relatively easy to do, it didn’t require any fancy adherence to specific diets, it didn’t require calorie counting, it didn’t require you to track macros — just change the time you eat.”
