Intermittent fasting vs. calorie counting for weight loss: many of the benefits are similar

Photo of a young woman using a mobile app to track nutrition and count calories with smartphone while eating breakfast. (Credit: Getty Images)

While intermittent fasting may be taking over the C-suite, a new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine suggests the popular diet trend produces similar weight-loss results as traditional calorie counting.

“There were no long-term studies that looked at the way people usually do time-restricted eating with an eight-hour window [of restricted eating],” says Krista A. Varady, Ph.D., study author and professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago. “We wanted to see if weight loss would be better with time-restricted eating versus traditional calorie counting, and it wasn’t.”