Intermittent fasting: It is not necessary to lose weight and can cause you to lose muscle mass. Confirmation in a new study

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When it comes to losing weight, intermittent fasting may not be any more effective than simply reducing your total daily calories. New research supports him.

We have told you several times about intermittent fasting. It involves limiting snacks and meals to a certain amount of time during the day which, according to several scientific researches, can have various health benefits.

Read also: Here's what happens to your body with just 5 days of intermittent fasting

But when it comes to weight loss, a new study published in Science Translational Medicine suggests this practice is no more effective than simply reducing daily calories and consuming them at unspecified times.

But that is not all. Intermittent fasting could even be bad for your muscle mass.

The study authors sampled 36 participants divided into 3 groups. The first simply reduced their daily calories by 25%, the other two fasted every other day, with one group following a fast day eating 50% more than usual and the other group eating 100% more.

At the conclusion of the study, three weeks later, the last group showed no weight loss, while the first group and the 50% group had lost approximately the same amount of weight but with significant differences. Those who fasted and then ate 50% more had lost much more muscle mass than those who did not fast.

For this reason, anyone who wants to do intermittent fasting should keep in mind that they may need to exercise more to maintain muscle mass, '' said study lead author James Betts, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for nutrition, exercise and metabolism at the University of Bath in the UK.

However, this is a very small study and it also has another limitation: that of not having well differentiated men and women who instead often have a different metabolism.

However, a previous study conducted by a team from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) had already reached the same conclusions. (Read also: Intermittent fasting: does not help with weight loss and can lead to muscle loss. The study that turns it all upside down).

Of course, the effectiveness of a practice such as that of intermittent fasting will also depend on the quality and quantity of food. If you consume high-calorie foods during the time window that you are allowed to eat, the benefits of fasting on weight loss are diminished.

The premise of intermittent fasting is in fact that you must eat healthy and nutritious foods and in normal quantities.

If weight loss is our goal, relying on an expert is always the best way to get the best results.