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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

3-month trial in 80 adults with fatty liver: mixed results for fasting plus exercise

Ezpeleta and colleagues · Cell metabolism · 2023

Original title: Effect of alternate day fasting combined with aerobic exercise on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: A randomized controlled trial.

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What the study found

Mixed

Liver fat fell -5.48% with fasting plus exercise vs -1.30% exercise alone and -0.17% control; vs fasting alone (-2.25%) no clear gap (p = 0.05). Weight fell with the combo vs control.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
80 people · adults with obesity and fatty liver disease
What was tested
alternate-day fasting plus exercise, fasting alone, exercise alone, or no change, for 3 months
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
How long
12 weeks
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author earned fees from Hachette for a book on alternate-day fasting.
Journal
Cell metabolism, 2023
Source
PubMed record 36549296. 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.
  • •Medium size: 80 people.
  • •Lasted 12 weeks.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: One author earned fees from Hachette for a book on alternate-day fasting.
  • •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: 4 benefit, 2 mixed, 1 no difference. This one found mixed. It differs from most of them.

  • Counted on the ladder, but not quoted in the page’s main findings.

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 agreed on every checked field. 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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