Research

Energy balance

Intermittent fasting 5:2 plus (30% energy on 2 fasting days, 70% on 5 non-fasting days) produces superior short-term weight loss compared to daily calorie restriction (70% energy daily) in Chinese adults with overweight or obesity.

If you have overweight or obesity, try an Intermittent Fasting 5:2 Plus program for 12 weeks. Eat about 30% of your normal calories on 2 non-consecutive days a week, and 70% on the other 5 days. Combine this with 150-300 minutes of moderate exercise weekly and behavioral tips like self-weighing. This approach led to significantly more weight loss than eating 70% of your calories every day in this study.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
The intermittent fasting 5:2 plus program more effectively led to weight loss than daily calorie restriction in the short-term in Chinese patients with overweight or obesity.
Junren Kang et al. · Nutrients · 2022

Why this rating

Retrospective cohort study, not randomized, though baseline characteristics were comparable.

Source

Effects of an Intermittent Fasting 5:2 Plus Program on Body Weight in Chinese Adults with Overweight or Obesity: A Pilot Study

Junren Kang et al. · Nutrients · 2022

DOI 10.3390/nu14224734

cohort · n=131Cited 34×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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