In a recent study from the Queensland University of Technology, researchers found that a restricted intermittent diet can provide better weight loss results and is easier to stick with than a continuous weight-loss diet.
The “MATADOR” study recruited 51 participants, all obese men. MATADOR is short for Minimizing Adaptive Thermogenesis And Deactivating Obesity Rebound.
After four weeks in which their caloric needs were calculated, the participants followed a “restricted intermittent diet” of two weeks followed by two weeks off for 16 weeks.
The team found that men who followed the restricted intermittent diet achieved greater weight loss and fat loss at the end of the study.
This suggests that a two-week-on, two-week-off diet plan could help you shed unwanted weight and keep it off.
The team explains that the breaks keep people’s metabolism from resetting at a lower caloric need, a reset that makes it harder to keep losing weight without more calorie cuts.
Future work needs to examine the effectiveness of this dietary approach when individuals are not provided meals in a tightly controlled study.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that a keto diet for weight loss can cause flu-like symptoms and weight loss drugs may help stop COVID-19.
For more information about wellness, please see recent studies about why exercise is less helpful in losing weight than simply eating less, and 10 small changes you can make to prevent weight gain.
The study was published in the International Journal of Obesity and conducted by N M Byrne et al.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
