Intermittent fasting ‘no magic bullet for weight loss’ says new study

Interesting. I've lost a lot of weight (at my lightest in years) since 2020-01-01, when my New Years' Resolution was to do 16:8 IF. Eventually left the subreddit for it because it seemed like it was goading people into forming eating disorders (which are often competetive, which is why you won't get numbers in this comment) though I kept on it until school re-started in September when I started cheating a little.

IF was probably not what caused me to lose weight. What caused me to lose weight was the mindfulness of my food intake that I developed while intermittently fasting. I significantly cut my caloric intake while remaining moderately physically active and am in much better shape for it (athletic I am not but I am fortunate to be able to walk 3-4hrs a day to and from work and additionally whenever I need groceries etc).

I wouldn't recommend IF to anyone because it can develop into an eating disorder and you are never in as much control as you think. After browsing that subreddit I doubt the odds of dieting successfully (as in, losing weight while maintaining health) are very good.

Obligatory: I am not a nutritionist, dietician, or professionally anywhere close to the health field.

No wonder. They don't understand the purpose of intermittant fasting is to place your body into a sustained fat burning mode. Instead they used diets that were harsh on the body and glutted with caloric intake.

  Group 1 which fasted on alternate days with their fast day
    followed by a day of eating 50% more than usual.
  Group 2 which reduced calories across all meals everyday by 25%.
  Group 3 which fasted on alternate days (in the same way as Group 1)
    but followed their fast day with one day eating 100% more than usual.

> But intermittent fasting is no magic bullet and the findings of our experiment suggest that there is nothing special about fasting when compared with more traditional, standard diets people might follow.

That's because there wasn't true fasting, just shifting of eating patterns.