Intermittent fasting: So, the 16:8 diet actually works, says new study

Creating frustration, preventing you from socialising with your friends, heavy on the wallet… here are some of the main reasons most diets don't work on the long run.

Yet, a new type of diet has been widely talked about in the past few months for actually allowing people to lose weight long term, and it is called intermittent fasting. 

While there are different ways of practising it, a new study published this week in the journal Nutrition and Healthy Ageing establishes that the 16:8 method actually works.

According to the researchers of the University of Illinois at Chicago, daily fasting is an effective tool to reduce weight and lower blood pressure on obese individuals.

Scientists worked with 23 obese volunteers who had an average age of 45 and average body mass index, or BMI, of 35.

Between 10am and 6pm, the dieters could eat any type and quantity of food they desired, but for the remaining 16 hours they could only drink water or calorie-free beverages. The study followed the participants for 12 weeks.

When compared to a matched historical control group from a previous weight loss trial on a different type of fasting, the researchers found that those who followed the time-restricted eating diet consumed fewer calories, lost weight and had improvements in blood pressure. 

"The take-home message from this study is that there are options for weight loss that do not include calorie counting or eliminating certain foods," said Krista Varady, associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition in the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences and corresponding author on the study.

"The results we saw in this study are similar to the results we've seen in other studies on alternate day fasting, another type of diet," Varady said, "but one of the benefits of the 16:8 diet may be that it is easier for people to maintain. We observed that fewer participants dropped out of this study when compared to studies on other fasting diets."

So, could you fast from 6pm to 10am? Would you want to give it a go?