Is intermittent fasting dead?

A new study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that Intermittent Fasting over a 6.3 year time span is largely a scam. [1]

The study was published on the 7th of February 2023 – so just a few days ago, and has already ruffled some feathers.

In this article we’ll touch upon the controversial findings and which kind of implications it has on the validity of intermittent fasting.

• You’ll also learn: When fasting makes sense – and when it doesn’t
• The different types of fasting: Intermittent fasting, vegan fasting, and specific eating window

For those that are new here: My name is Florian, I’m an award-winning personal trainer and published author.

So let’s just dive right in:

The Controversial Findings Of The Intermittent Fasting Study

The main reason this study was conducted was to look at the link between the time window of eating and weight changes. The authors basically wanted to know if the actual restricting of your eating to a certain time window has any impact on weight loss.

Specifically the long-term weight loss.

The authors wrote: Questions remain about the potential benefits of time‐restricted eating patterns, especially the challenges with maintaining this eating behavior.

This is an important question – because if you lose the weight, yet re-gain it back a few months later – doing intermittent fasting was nonsense – right?

It’s as Dr. Michael Greger, best-selling author and wildly famous nutrition researcher, said:

“Diets don’t work by definition – because there’s an end-point to it.”

So the question is not: Does a diet work short-term – the question is – does the diet lead to a sustainable lifestyle change?

And that is what this study is trying to find out.

Especially since intermittent fasting already has some cracks in the armor. A study of 420 Spanish participants followed for 20 weeks showed that later lunch eaters (after 3pm) had less weight loss compared with early lunch eaters (before 3pm) with the same caloric intake and physical activity.

So the time window is smaller, but the weight loss is worse.

And that’s what this new study here found as well:

The fasting window had absolutely no effect on the long-term weight loss. The fasting window in the below picture is the ‘time from first to last meal’. Which we see on the right hand side, has no effect at all on the long-term weight loss.

In the picture below, we see that a bigger effect on the long-term weight loss was the number of medium meals (‘No. of medium meals’) – and the number of large meals (‘No. of large meals’).

So the more you eat, the more you weigh – irrespective when you eat.

Is This Study Legit?

The study has clear ties to the John Hopkins School of Medicine – a prestigious and famous medicine school.

And got published in the Journal of the American Heart Association – a prestigious and famous medical journal.

Prestige aside, the findings of the study are similar to the findings of other randomized trials…

… which are one of the most impactful studies there are.

The best way to describe this is that there are some studies which are not as strong as others. To use a Last of Us example here – you can imagine some studies as ‘Runners’, and there are some studies which are ‘Clickers’.

A randomized trial is a ‘Clicker’ – or a ‘Bloater’. While Dr. Eric Berg’s opinion for example, is like a weak Grandma Zombie.

So when it comes to basing your nutrition choices or weight loss strategies on evidence, you gotta use a ‘Clicker’ – not a ‘Grandma Zombie’.

What Are The 3 Lessons Of This Intermittent Fasting Study?

1. Calories are the main thing.

The researchers conclude that their findings, indicate that total overall caloric intake is the major driver of weight gain. Not a specific time window normally practiced in intermittent fasting. Brilliant.

2. Eat earlier in the day.

Participants with shorter time from wake up to first meal and with longer time from last meal to sleep appeared to have less weight increase. This trend suggested that consuming meals early in the day might facilitate weight control.

It’s important to note that making that change may not have immediate short‐term effects on weight, but could implicate a long‐term effect on energy metabolism and weight changes.

3. Intermittent Fasting long-term benefits? Not existent.

Overall, the study’s main conclusion is that there is no support for the use of time‐restricted eating as a strategy for long‐term weight loss.

But… is there ever a time intermittent fasting makes sense?

When does Intermittent Fasting make sense?

Intermittent fasting is often applied for weight loss reasons. Now while Intermittent Fasting is a good way to lose weight short-term – it’s scientifically proven to not work on a long-term time horizon.

Intermittent fasting makes sense for health benefits – but only if it’s done in the absolute right way. Here is the 3-step process to sensical intermittent fasting:

Step 1 – Have a proper, healthy fundament: Vegan diet

Intermittent fasting is similar to high intensity interval training: It makes sense, but only after the basics are already dialled in.

• It is not intermittent fasting that is the only diet that has ever shown to clinically reverse heart disease, it’s a plant-based diet. [2]
• It’s not intermittent fasting that has been shown to prevent the origin of cancer in the largest nutritional study ever conducted, it’s a plant-based diet. [3]

Healthy nutrition choices start with a nice fundament. And that is a healthy vegan diet.

There are numerous health benefits to removing animal based foods out of your nutrition, and it’s the best first step to start with.

Step 2 – Add intermittent fasting

For additional health benefits, such as:

• Improvements in sleep quality
• Improvements in digestive health
• Improvements in mental clarity (brain health)

Intermittent fasting can be added to a vegan diet. Again, we do not start with adding intermittent fasting to an already flawed nutrition, instead – we start with great nutrition and add intermittent fasting on top.

Plant based foods add 90% of the health benefits, intermittent fasting adds 10%.

Step 3 – Vegan intermittent fasting done right

Once we have the right combination of tools: The vegan diet and intermittent fasting – we have to combine it in the right way.

We have to have the right eating window: The fasting period should not be done in the morning. The fasting period should be done in the evening.

Meaning: Eating should be stopped at 7pm.

Having the fasting periods in the night, and therefore the eating window in the morning, has been shown to be more beneficial for the health benefits – but also to burn fat.

Finally Revealed: The Best Way To Lose Weight Quickly And Sustainably

As intermittent fasting has been shown to not be a feasible way to lose weight – the question then becomes: What is the absolute best way to lose weight?

Step 1: Go to the next dumpster.

Proverbially open your skull and empty your brain of all the trash information the fitness industry has been feeding you. We want to start from a blank slate.

Step 2: Calorie restriction is all that matters.

I want you to focus on calorie intake. Not on exercise, not on when to eat and not on food’s impact on your blood sugar (unless you’re mortally ill).

Calorie intake is all that matters to lose weight quickly. [4]

Step 3: Get a rice cooker.

Go to Amazon.com and get a rice cooker.

Step 4: Increase your vegetable intake.

For lunch and dinner, put 2 cups of broccoli or spinach into the rice cooker.

Step 5: Eat the vegetables to develop healthier eating habits.

Whatever you’re eating right now – I want you to eat the 2 cups of spinach or broccoli first – before eating what you’re about to eat in the first place.

• If you eat pizza or donuts for dinner, keep eating the pizza and donuts but eat the 2 cup of veggies first.
• If you eat chips for lunch, keep eating the chips but eat the 2 cup of veggies first.

Why Does It Work?

Not only will this strategy be relatively easy to follow, it will also:

1. Improve insulin sensitivity
2. Decrease chances of nutrient deficiency
3. Improve brain health
4. Reduce body fat

Sounds wonderful and simple enough, right?

But… what if you’re part of the 99% of the population that knows what to do – yet struggles to do what they know that they should do?

Do You Struggle With Doing What You Know You Should Do?

Look weight loss is less about strategies and techniques – and more about getting yourself to do what you know that you should do.

Because the absolute best weight loss strategy does not work if you do not follow it, right?

So successful weight loss is more about the art and science of behavior change. It’s more about psychology and less about physiology.

In my newest book called ‘The Fit Vegans Secrets’ I’ll hand you the keys for you to learn how to re-wire your brain, so you finally do what you know you should do.

The book is the first one of it’s kind, as it’s being engineered to be read in a short afternoon, with the potential to give you benefits for decades.

You can get the book for absolutely free here: https://fitvegans.com/secrets

References:

[1] Association of Eating and Sleeping Intervals With Weight Change Over Time: The Daily24 Cohort: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.122.026484

[2] Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1973470/

[3] Atlas of cancer mortality in the People’s Republic of China. An aid for cancer control and research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7287273/

[4] Twinkie diet helps nutrition professor lose 27 pounds: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/11/08/twinkie.diet.professor/index.html