Is Intermittent Fasting Truly Effective In Terms Of Weight Loss?

When it comes to fitness and all those procedures aimed at maintaining a proper physical condition, the most controversial question is: how can an individual lose weight in a relatively narrow margin of time? An unspecified number of diets and food regimes have been created throughout the last decades, and the majority of them used to promise miracles in terms of weight loss. But all the dieticians and nutritionists agree that the only secret to a long and healthy life, as well as a tonic and functional body, is a mixture of a healthy and varied diet combined with a dynamic lifestyle (which means daily workout and a consistent sleep-wake cycle).

Nonetheless, some diets have proven to be more effective than others. One of the most discussed ones is undoubtedly intermittent fasting, in each one of its declinations. This diet is based on a series of windows, during which an individual can have meals and other ones during which he has to observe a complete lack of food. There are basically four types of intermittent fasting, officially recognized in the medical field.

Alternative day fasting. It is currently the most common – as well as the most thoroughly studied – alternative fasting protocol in the world. It consists of a whole day of fasting (or at most a day marked by a single meal, with a nutritional intake not exceeding 500 Kcal), followed by a whole day during which the individual can eat whatever he wants without any limit.
Whole day fasting. This kind of diet is based on one or two days a week of complete fasting and the rest of the week is marked by a regular food regime (which means a regular calorie intake).
Time-restricted feeding: lean gains. The individual can consume food every day through a regular caloric intake (or even a slightly exceeding one) and basically without giving up any food. But he has to concentrate his meals into an 8-hour window, while for the other 16 hours, he cannot eat anything.
Time-restricted feeding: warrior diet. In this case, the feeding window is further restricted to 4 hours, placed in the evening, before going to bed.

All these protocols are currently under study, and they’ve generated many controversial and large debates in the medical sector concerning both their real effectiveness and their possible risks to human health. It has been proven that the fasting windows trigger weight loss that generally cannot be compensated completely by the feeding windows: this generates a caloric deficit, that leads to a relatively rapid exceeding of body fat burning. What is important in this kind of diet is being constantly monitored by a doctor, who has the task of checking any lack of fundamental nutrients (any possible deficit must be compensated through the assumption of supplements or a series of corrections in the food schedule). At the same time, those who observe a diet have to learn how to manage their sense of appetite: to achieve that, significant help can be provided by those medicinal products (Saxenda is probably the most famous one) that are able to reduce the appetite by causing a sense of fullness.