Craig Peckham MD

Beginners Guide To Intermittent Fasting for Weight Loss Craig Peckham MD

If you've ever Googled intermittent fasting, you probably know that it is an intervention for weight loss that has captured public imagination within the last decade. You might even be considering it as a New Year's health resolution. But intermittent fasting has also grabbed the attention of metabolism and aging researchers and even some clinicians. What started as an alternative to continuous caloric restriction (often considered a gold standard for delaying aging) is now the subject of a vast array of animal and human studies and numerous clinical trials. Intermittent fasting has been investigated as an intervention not only for weight loss but also for metabolic health more broadly. Studies have shown that when it comes to weight loss, intermittent fasting can be just as effective as traditional calorie restriction, if not more. In fact, a 2014 review found that intermittent fasting could help people lose an impressive 3-8% of their body weight in 3-24 weeks. Moreover, a recent review concluded that in overweight and obese people, intermittent fasting may be a better approach to weight loss than very-low-calorie diets. Interestingly, this approach to eating may also benefit your metabolism and metabolic health.