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RESEARCH ARTICLE
SA JOURNAL OF DIABETES & VASCULAR DISEASE
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VOLUME 15 NUMBER 1 • JULY 2018
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Daily fasting helps control weight and lower blood pressure
D
aily fasting is an effective tool to
reduce weight and lower blood
pressure, according to a study published
by University of Illinois at Chicago
researchers. The study is the first to
examine the effect of time-restricted
eating – a form of fasting that limits food
consumption to select hours each day –
on weight loss in obese individuals.
To study the effect of this type of
diet, researchers worked with 23 obese
volunteers who had an average age of
45 years and average body mass index, or
BMI, of 35 kg/m
2
. Between the hours of
10 am and 6 pm the dieters could eat any
type and quantity of food they desired,
but for the remaining 16 hours they could
only drink water or calorie-free beverages.
The study followed the participants for 12
weeks.
When compared to a matched
historical control group from a previous
weight loss trial on a different type of
fasting, the researchers found that those
who followed the time-restricted eating
diet consumed fewer calories, lost weight
and had improvements in blood pressure.
On average, participants consumed about
350 fewer calories, lost about 3% of their
body weight and saw their systolic blood
pressure decreased by about 7 mmHg. All
other measures, including fat mass, insulin
resistance and cholesterol, were similar to
the control group.
‘The take-home message from this
study is that there are options for weight
loss that do not include calorie counting
or eliminating certain foods,’ said Krista
Varady, associate professor of kinesiology
and nutrition in the UIC College of Applied
Health Sciences and corresponding author
on the study.
While this is the first study to look at
the 16:8 diet, named for its 16 hours of
fasting and its 8 hours of ‘feasting,’ Varady
says that the results align with previous
research on other types of intermittent
fasting diets.
‘The results we saw in this study are
similar to the results we’ve seen in other
studies on alternate day fasting, another
type of diet,’ Varady said, ‘but one of the
benefits of the 16:8 diet may be that it is
easier for people to maintain. We observed
that fewer participants dropped out of this
study when compared to studies on other
fasting diets.’
Varady says that while the research
indicates daily fasting works for weight
loss, there have not yet been studies to
determine if it works better than other
diets, although the researchers observed
the weight loss to be slightly less than what
has been observed in other intermittent
fasting diet studies.
‘These preliminary data offer promise
for the use of time-restricted feeding as
a weight loss technique in obese adults,
but longer-term, large-scale randomized
controlled trials (are required),’ Varady and
her colleagues write.
‘The 16:8 diet is another tool for weight
loss that we now have preliminary scientific
evidence to support,’ Varady said. ‘When
it comes to weight loss, people need to
find what works for them because even
small amounts of success can lead to
improvements in metabolic health.’
The Centres for Disease Control and
Prevention estimates that more than
one-third of adults in the USA have
obesity, which greatly increases the risk
of metabolic diseases such as coronary
heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and
that obesity is most prevalent among non-
Hispanic black individuals and middle-
aged adults.