Research
Hormonal
Alternate-day fasting (ADF) may lead to more favorable body composition changes (fat loss vs. lean mass gain) during weight regain compared to daily caloric restriction, potentially due to preserved resting metabolic rate.
If you are concerned about losing muscle while dieting, ADF might be a better option than daily restriction. This study suggests that after weight loss, ADF participants regained less fat and more muscle than those on daily restriction, possibly due to better preservation of metabolic rate.
LimitedQualifiesLOW confidence
After 24 weeks of unsupervised follow-up, there were no significant differences in weight regain; however, changes from baseline in % fat mass and lean mass were more favorable in ADF.
Why this rating
Pilot study, underpowered for body composition differences, unsupervised follow-up.
Source
A randomized pilot study comparing zero‐calorie alternate‐day fasting to daily caloric restriction in adults with obesity
Victoria A. Catenacci et al. · Obesity · 2016
DOI 10.1002/oby.21581
rct · n=26Cited 327×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Zero-calorie alternate-day fasting (ADF) produces weight loss and metabolic improvements equivalent to moderate daily caloric restriction (CR) over 8 weeks, with a higher estimated energy deficit but similar absolute weight loss.Moderate
- Alternate-day fasting (ADF) preserves resting metabolic rate (RMR) better than daily caloric restriction during weight loss, as indicated by a non-significant decrease in adjusted RMR for ADF compared to a significant decrease for CR.Limited
- Alternate-day fasting (ADF) leads to a significant increase in Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) levels during the 24-week follow-up period compared to daily caloric restriction, which saw a decrease.Limited
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