Research

Energy balance

Intermittent energy restriction (IER) leads to greater reductions in systolic blood pressure and fat mass compared to continuous energy restriction (CER) in the short term, but these benefits are transient and revert to baseline after the intervention ends.

IER can improve blood pressure and reduce fat mass more effectively than daily calorie restriction in the short term. However, these health benefits disappear if you stop the diet, so maintaining the lifestyle change is critical for sustained cardiovascular health.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
as were reductions in fat mass (p < 0.001) and improvements in systolic blood pressure (p < 0.001)... changes in anthropometry and blood pressure in the IER group had reverted to baseline by 12-month follow-up
Rona Antoni et al. · European Journal of Nutrition · 2019

Why this rating

Same limitations as N1 (observational, self-selection, high attrition).

Source

Efficacy of an intermittent energy restriction diet in a primary care setting

Rona Antoni et al. · European Journal of Nutrition · 2019

DOI 10.1007/s00394-019-02098-y

cohort · n=197Cited 16×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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