Relevant to our story yesterday on eating dietary fat, a new study on the 5:2 diet hints at how an overall diet can affect what happens with fat intake.

In the continuing flow of  research surrounding calorie restriction, fasting and nutritional ketosis new insights continue to accrue. A new potential piece of the puzzle comes from a recently published study in the British Journal of Nutrition comparing an intermittent fasting model versus continuous calorie restriction.

Working with 27 overweight/obese participants, researchers assigned the subjects to one of two groups. Both groups were required to lose five-percent of their body weight.

One group would follow a 5:2 diet. They would eat “normally” for five days of the week and two days would restrict their caloric intake to 600 calories.

Those following the continuous restriction protocol were guided to eat 600 calories less per day than what was estimated to be the number of calories needed to maintain their weight.

Although the 5:2 group reached the weight-loss goal in 59 days days versus the continuous calorie restriction group’s 73 days, “The study found no statistically significant difference in the time to attain a 5 % weight loss between groups.”

But what they did find were indicators that the 5:2 diet was superior when it came to postprandial lipaemia, a risk factor in heart disease. In other words, those on the 5:2 diet, according to the results, were better able to clear triglycerides from the blood after a meal.

Study citation: Antoni, R., Johnston, K., Collins, A., & Robertson, M. (2018). Intermittent v. continuous energy restriction: Differential effects on postprandial glucose and lipid metabolism following matched weight loss in overweight/obese participants. British Journal of Nutrition, 119(5), 507-516. doi:10.1017/S0007114517003890

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