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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review in overweight adults: slightly more weight loss with fasting, no BMI difference

Zhang and colleagues · Nutrients · 2022

Original title: Intermittent Fasting versus Continuous Calorie Restriction: Which Is Better for Weight Loss?

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Mixed

Body weight fell a little more with fasting than calorie cutting (SMD = -0.21, 95% CI (-0.40, -0.02) p = 0.028). BMI did not differ (SMD = 0.02, 95% CI (-0.16, 0.20) p = 0.848).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
overweight and obese adults
What was tested
intermittent fasting vs continuous daily calorie cutting
What it measured
The question itself: weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
Nutrients, 2022
Source
PubMed record 35565749. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of many studies.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •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

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ 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

  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

Other reviews on this question

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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