Carb Restriction Rivals Calorie Cuts in Fasting Benefits

Intermittent fasting is not only a , it’s also shown to have  — independent of weight loss. Yet many people may find intermittent fasting to be a challenge, especially if following the 5:2 version of the diet where calories are severely restricted two days a week.

But  shows that you don’t need to severely restrict your calories to get the metabolic benefits of intermittent fasting. Even just restricting the number of carbs you eat twice a week may be enough to improve your metabolic health.

Intermittent fasting appears to be so beneficial for health because of the way it alters our metabolism.

After a meal, our body enters the postprandial state. While in this state, our metabolism pushes our cells to use carbohydrates for immediate energy, while storing some of these carbs as well as fat for later use. But after several hours without food, in the postabsorptive “fasted” state, our metabolism switches to using some of our fat stores for energy.

In this regard, intermittent fasting ensures a better balance between the sources it uses for energy. This leads to , which is linked with . In other words, this means lower risk of cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

My colleagues and I previously ran a study to demonstrate the  on the body. We observed that following a day of both total fasting or severe calorie restriction (eating around only 25 per cent of each person’s daily calorie requirements), the body was better at clearing and burning the fat of a full English breakfast the next day. Fasting shifted the body from using carbs to using fat. This effect carried on both during the fast and the next day.

 has also compared the effects of intermittent fasting to a calorie-matched or calorie-restricted diet. Both groups followed the diet until they lost 5 per cent of their body weight.

Despite both groups losing the same 5 per cent of body weight, and at the same rate, the intermittent fasting group had greater improvements in their metabolic handling, similar to what we saw in the previous trial.

 who have compared the effects of the 5:2 variant of the intermittent fasting diet to a calorie-matched, calorie-restricted diet have also found fasting is beneficial for metabolic health.

Metabolic health benefits

But why exactly is intermittent fasting ? This is a question I sought to answer in .