Is Intermittent Fasting Better Than Continuous Energy Restriction for Adults with Overweight and Obesity?

Abstract

As a popular weight management intervention, intermittent fasting (IF) has been widely applied to the treatment of overweight and obesity in adults. This review describes the different forms and implementation protocols of IF and their effects on body weight, body composition, cardiometabolic risk factors and other diseases. The existing evidence suggests that IF is as effective as continuous energy restriction and may be a feasible and effective approach to weight loss.

Keywords:

• overweight
• obesity
• intermittent fasting
• continuous energy restriction
• weight management

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in relation to this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Zhejiang Basic Public Welfare Research Project (LGF20H260013) and the Initial Scientific Research Fund for PhD from Taizhou Hospital of Zhejiang Province (2018BSKYQDJJ15).