Calorie counting still better than intermittent fasting

You may want to slow down on fasting.

A new study — published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association — has found that intermittent fasting fails to help dieters drop weight, with calorie counting still the most effective way to shed any unwanted pounds.

The Johns Hopkins University research team’s findings are likely to shock those spending up to 16 hours a day abstaining from food in their battle against the bulge.

Intermittent fasting has become one of the hottest diet trends in recent years, with proponents of the practice including super-slim celebs Jennifer Aniston and Gisele Bündchen.

But the researchers cast doubt on the trend’s benefits, bluntly stating: “Our findings did not support the use of time‐restricted eating as a strategy for long‐term weight loss in a general medical population.”

The study involved 550 adults in Maryland and Pennsylvania, with their weight and eating habits tracked one week per month over the course of six months.

On average, participants were 51 years old and had a college education. There were 240 obese participants, while 169 were overweight and 138 were of a healthy weight.  

Those undertaking the study used an app called Daily24 to monitor calorie intake and the time between their meals.

After analyzing the data, researchers say they “found an association between the eating of more frequent and larger meals per day and weight increase, indicating that total overall caloric intake is the major driver of weight gain.”

Interestingly, they also found that “the distribution of energy intake earlier during the day appeared to be associated with less weight increase after enrollment,” meaning that those who ate breakfast were less likely to pile on the pounds.

That finding seems to jibe with many intermittent fasters who forgo breakfast and only eat between midday and 8 p.m.

Last year, a separate study found intermittent fasting can send you to an early grave — because of the breakfast boycott.

The study, published in the journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, determined that skipping breakfast is associated with a higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

Meanwhile, research published by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine last April also affirmed that intermittent fasting failed to produce better weight-loss results than simple calorie counting.

“A regimen of time-restricted eating was not more beneficial with regard to reduction in body weight, body fat or metabolic risk factors than daily calorie restriction,” the study authors wrote.

However, not all experts are in agreement.

Tim Spector, professor at King’s College London, described calorie counting as “complete nonsense” in an interview on “The Diary of a CEO With Steven Bartlett” podcast last week.

“There has never been any long-term study showing that calorie counting is an effective way to lose weight and maintain weight loss after the first few weeks,” the dietitian declared.

Meanwhile, the Johns Hopkins researchers conceded that their six-month-long study still left them with “questions about the potential benefits of time‐restricted eating patterns, especially the challenges with maintaining this eating behavior.”