Research

Energy balance

Intermittent fasting (5:2 diet) produces significantly greater weight loss and improvements in insulin resistance compared to continuous calorie restriction in overweight women over 12 weeks.

If you are overweight and non-diabetic, try a 5:2 intermittent fasting schedule for 12 weeks. On two non-consecutive days, eat only 20-25% of your daily energy needs. On the other five days, eat normally. This approach may lead to greater weight loss and better insulin sensitivity than simply cutting calories every day.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Subjects in the IMF had 5.9% weight loss compared to 2.3% in the CER group. The reduction in fasting insulin and HOMA-IR were greater in the IMF group (p=0.012 and 0.022, respectively).
S Tivya et al. · Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies · 2021

Why this rating

Randomized controlled trial with a small sample size (n=37) and short duration (12 weeks).

Source

EFFECT OF INTERMITTENT FASTING IN OVERWEIGHT FEMALES ON WEIGHT LOSS AND METABOLIC BIOMARKERS

S Tivya et al. · Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies · 2021

DOI 10.15605/jafes.036.s17

rct · n=37Cited 2×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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