Fasting Window for Weight Loss: is Longer Always better?

About This Episode

Intermittent fasting for longer each day must yield better the results…right?

Well, not according to a this published time-restricted feeding (TRF) study, conduced in mainly females.

Researchers at University of Illinois found no additional fat-loss or blood sugar lowering benefit when subjects tacked on two additional hours to their daily fast over the eight week study period.

In brief, study participants in both the 20 hour and 18 hour fasting arms of the study had similar improvements in insulin resistance, reductions in markers of oxidative stress and fat loss.

Surprisingly, the four hour feeding group actually lost less muscle mass over the course of the study compared to the six hour feeding window.

As mentioned in the video above, the overall quantity of muscle loss is insignificant, but it’s interesting to consider.

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Graphical Abstract:

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Fasting for longer is always better….right? Well, this recently published time-restricted feeding (TRF) study (mostly female study participants) found that adding an extra two hours to a daily fast actually didn’t lead to greater fat loss or health improvements over a two-month period. Psst….posted a full breakdown and details of this study on my YouTube channel/podcast yesterday if you’re interested. Long-story short, both a four and six hour compressed feeding window offered significantly more weight loss, improvements in insulin metabolism and reductions in oxidative stress compared to not fasting at all over the course of eight weeks—even without counting calories! REF: Cienfuegos, S., (2020). Effects of 4- and 6-h Time-Restricted Feeding on Weight and Cardiometabolic Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Adults with Obesity Cell Metabolism 32(3), 366-378.e3 #timerestrictedeating #timerestrictedfeeding #intermittenfasting #fasting #keto #lowcarb #ketogenic #mitochondria #guthealth #trf #if #fitness #metabolicmonday

A post shared by Mike Mutzel, MS (@metabolic_mike) on Sep 6, 2020 at 11:43am PDT

References

Cienfuegos, S., Gabel, K., Kalam, F., Ezpeleta, M., Wiseman, E., Pavlou, V., Lin, S., Oliveira, M., Varady, K. (2020). Effects of 4- and 6-h Time-Restricted Feeding on Weight and Cardiometabolic Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Adults with Obesity Cell Metabolism 32(3), 366-378.e3.