Intermittent fasting produced comparable weight loss to traditional daily calorie restriction over 18 months — but people following intermittent fasting did so without the same constant feeling of needing to monitor and limit their food intake, according to a new study from Adelaide University published in the journal Clinical Nutrition.
That distinction may matter more than the weight loss numbers alone. Difficulty sticking to a diet — not the diet's biological effectiveness — is the primary reason people abandon calorie-restriction programs, researchers said. And the study, led by Professor Leonie Heilbronn of Adelaide University's School of Medicine and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, found that intermittent fasting could offer an alternative pathway specifically for people whose eating behaviors make sustained calorie counting feel impossible.
