NIH weighs CCR vs IF

Excerpt copied from:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9099935/

Most obese people rarely choose to exercise because of work stress or psychological reasons; they are more enthusiastic about dietary intervention. Dietary adjustment is the heart of obesity treatment. Weight loss diets include various permutations of energy restriction, macronutrients, and food and dietary intake patterns [8]. In recent years, various dietary adjustment methods have become increasingly popular. Current guidelines recommend continuous calorie restriction (CCR; about 500 or 750 kcal of energy deficiency per day, or 30% of baseline energy requirements limits) and comprehensive lifestyle interventions as the cornerstone of obesity treatments [9]. On average, this method produces moderate weight loss (5–10% ≥ 1 year) [9].

Because traditional CCR methods are relatively ineffective in achieving and sustaining weight loss, there has been growing interest in identifying alternative dietary weight-loss strategies that limit the energy intake to specific periods of the day or extend the gap between meals (i.e., intermittent calorie restriction, ICR) [10]. Intermittent fasting (IF) comes in many forms and includes regular breaks. A common form of IF includes fasting once or twice a week for up to 24 h, followed by discretionary food intake for the remainder of the day, known variously as periodic long-term fasting, ICR, intermittent energy restriction (IER) [11], time-restricted eating (TRE, i.e., eating only for 8 h and then fasting for another 16 h a day), and alternate-day fasting (ADF) [12]. However, it is not yet certain whether TRE has the same health effects as other forms of IF [10,13]; therefore, we omitted TRE in this study.

Continuous fasting has become widespread in daily life, and intermittent fasting has become increasingly popular. Intermittent fasting is a dietary pattern alternating between normal energy and energy restriction (or complete fasting) and has attracted substantial attention from scholars [14]. IF reduces body mass and improves glucose and lipid metabolism. Its benefits include reducing the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and stroke, inhibiting tumor growth, and preventing Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease [15].