Daily Time-Restricted Feeding and Alternative Day Fasting for Weight Management: Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The approach of limiting nutritional intake frequency, but without a large reduction of the amount of calories consumed, the so-called intermittent fasting, has gained growing popularity. Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for meal timing schedules that cycle between voluntary fasting (or vastly reduced calories intake) and non-fasting over a defined period. In our study, we compared two of the most popular intermittent fasting regimens-16/8 time-restricted feeding and 5/2 alternate day fasting. A total of 16 healthy young women (under 30 years of age) participated in the study, eight in each intermittent fasting group, for six consecutive weeks. Among anthropometric parameters, height, weight, umbilical waist circumference, sagittal abdominal diameter, and skinfold thickness were measured and body mass index and relative body fat were calculated. Differences between the initial values and the values after the six-week intermittent fasting period were calculated and compared between the two groups. We found no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) between 16/8 time-restricted feeding and 5/2 alternate day fasting regimens in differences over the six-week period for the tested parameter, including weight loss. As there were no significant differences for overall changes in parameter values in the six-week period between the two intermittent fasting regimens, we concluded that both were equally suitable for weight loss programmes.