Research
Energy balance
Alternate day fasting (ADF) and modified ADF (MADF) are the most effective intermittent fasting regimens for weight loss, ranking higher than caloric energy restriction (CER) and time-restricted eating (TRE).
If your goal is maximum weight loss using intermittent fasting, Alternate Day Fasting (either zero-calorie or modified) appears to be the most effective strategy compared to Time-Restricted Eating or the 5:2 diet. However, adherence drops in longer studies, so consistency is key.
GoodSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The exploratory random effects network analysis of 24 RCTs (n = 1768) ranked ADF as the most effective, followed by CER and TRE.
Why this rating
Based on a meta-analysis of 24 RCTs, though risk of bias was moderate to high.
Source
A meta‐analysis comparing the effectiveness of alternate day fasting, the 5:2 diet, and time‐restricted eating for weight loss
Paloma Elortegui Pascual et al. · Obesity · 2022
DOI 10.1002/oby.23568
Meta-analysis · 24 studiesCited 129×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Intermittent fasting (IF) regimens produce weight loss results statistically similar to traditional Caloric Energy Restriction (CER).Good
- Adherence to intermittent fasting regimens is generally high (>80%) in short-term studies (≤3 months) but drops significantly in long-term studies (>3 months).Good
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