DECRYPTION – Intermittent diets, which consist of alternating periods of fasting with time slots during which it is allowed to eat normally, are on the rise.
Intermittent diets are believed to limit the number of calories the body takes in without the continual frustration experienced in a traditional restrictive diet. But are they as effective for weight loss? The question, at the heart of a booming field of research, has not yet been settled scientifically.
A study published last week in Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that it would be more beneficial to eat smaller meals than to adhere to periods of fasting. In this work carried out over a period of six years, the researchers followed the eating behaviors of 550 adults, most of them obese. In particular, they noted the times, frequency and size of meals and snacks, as well as the time of waking up and falling asleep via a mobile application. These data were compared with participants’ weight trajectories recorded in electronic health registries.
Incomplete data
Scientists have thus…
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