Research

Energy balance

Intermittent fasting during Ramadan leads to significant reductions in body weight, BMI, fat mass, and waist circumference in healthy young men, primarily driven by negative energy balance.

If you fast from sunrise to sunset for a month, you will likely lose weight and body fat, provided you don't overeat during non-fasting hours. This study showed a modest but significant drop in weight and fat mass, driven by eating less overall.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Results demonstrate reductions in body weight (P < .001), body mass index (P < .001), fat mass (P = .003), muscle mass (P = .004), and waist circumference (P < .001) following reductions in energy intake (P = .003).
Guntari Prasetya et al. · American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine · 2018

Why this rating

Single-arm observational study with no control group.

Source

Intermittent Fasting During Ramadan Improves Insulin Sensitivity and Anthropometric Parameters in Healthy Young Muslim Men

Guntari Prasetya et al. · American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine · 2018

DOI 10.1177/1559827618815430

crossover · n=27Cited 26×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →