What if we are doing the bad intermittent fasting? Some experts propose to focus only on carbohydrates

Losing weight is not as simple as subjecting our body to a caloric deficit. Diets based on ingesting less calories than our body consumes work well in some contexts, but their medium and long term effects are limited by our metabolism and by our own constancy. That is why the intermittent fasting It has become one of the most popular diets for those who want to lose weight.

Question of alternatives. Now, a group of researchers He has found A way to make these more affordable diets. The idea is based on making this diet less restrictive, limiting only carbohydrate intake in the days of temporarily limiting our caloric intake.

Intermittent caloric restriction. Diets based on intermittent caloric restriction, which we often refer to as intermittent fasting Although they do not always imply fasting, they are based on limiting our food intake over time. There are different strategies to perform this fast, such as fasting 5: 2, in which we severely restrict the calories we eat for two days and eat normally the rest of the week.

To understand the usefulness of This type of diets We have to remember how our metabolism, in an eagerness to protect ourselves from scarcity, can limit the success that conventional caloric restriction when weight loss. And our body reacts when we give less food, limiting our energy consumption to save resources, which ends up implying that when we ingest less calories, in the medium term our body also ends up consuming less energy.

Cardiometabolic health. According to Adam Collins, co -author of the new study and researcher at the University of Surrey, In an article for The conversationintermittent fasting has an added advantage. It is about improving our “metabolic flexibility” since it allows us to balance the energy sources that our body, carbohydrates and fat reserves. This in turn implies a lower risk of problems such as cardiovascular diseases or type 2 diabetes.

The new study signed by Collins and his team sought to inquire about the reasons why this improvement in our metabolism is given when we follow this diet. Since these types of diets focus on the idea that our body goes from using carbohydrates as a source of energy to consume fats, the team decided to study the implications of a limited carbohydrate restriction over time.

12 participants. The 12 participants In the study, overweight or obesity adults, they passed for two days of separate food restriction for five days of “rest.” One of the restriction days, the participants consumed a low diet in hydrates, while the other day they consumed a diet based on the chlorical reduction (consuming 75% less calories with respect to what would be common). The days following the restriction day the participants consumed a high ration in fats and sugars.

What the team observed is that both diet forms showed similar results in each type of diet. The details of the study have been Published in an article In the magazine European Journal of Nutrition.

Looking for answers. As explained by the team responsible for the analysis, new studies will be necessary to better understand this relationship and to strengthen this notion with a broader population. The team emphasizes that each of the diets (carbohydrate restriction and temporary restriction) entail Your own problemsbut perhaps combining them allows us to make these more bearable diets and with it more affordable and with a lower risk.

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Image | Rosy Ko