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Diet and food › Intermittent Fasting and Weight › Studies

Randomized trial · measured other health measures

Trial in 12 adults: weight fell with daytime eating, rose with late eating

Allison and colleagues · Current biology : CB · 2021

Original title: Prolonged, Controlled Daytime versus Delayed Eating Impacts Weight and Metabolism.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Weight and insulin resistance went down on the daytime schedule compared with the delayed one, and went up on the delayed schedule (effect size range: d = 0.397-1.019).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
12 people · healthy adults aged about 26 with normal weight
What was tested
eating only 8 am to 7 pm vs only noon to 11 pm, same food and calories, 8 weeks each in a crossover
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
How long
8 weeks
Trial registration
NCT04414644
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author had research funding from Novo Nordisk and consulted for WW (Weight Watchers), stated as unrelated.
Journal
Current biology : CB, 2021
Source
PubMed record 33259790. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • –Small: 12 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • –Short: 8 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: One author had research funding from Novo Nordisk and consulted for WW (Weight Watchers), stated as unrelated.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: weight loss

    9

    5 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    8

    4 benefit, 3 mixed, 1 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    1

    1 benefit

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does intermittent fasting help with weight loss?”

Yes, but about like calorie cutting.

Confidence: moderate. Based on 26 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 7 papers on the same step: 3 benefit, 3 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found benefit.

  • Open item for a person: Allison 2021: compares early vs late eating windows with the same food, not fasting vs usual eating or calorie cutting; relevance is indirect.

Other papers on the same step

See all 26 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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