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Diet and food › Intermittent Fasting and Weight › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

12-week trial in 326 adults: 5:2 diet lowered blood sugar more than routine education

Li and colleagues · Diabetes care · 2024

Original title: Effect of 5:2 Regimens: Energy-Restricted Diet or Low-Volume High-Intensity Interval Training Combined With Resistance Exercise on Glycemic Control and Cardiometabolic Health in Adults With Overweight/Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: A Three-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial.

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What the study found

Points to benefit

Main result was blood sugar: HbA1c fell -0.72 with the 5:2 diet vs -0.37 in controls (difference -0.34, 95% CI -0.58 to -0.11, P = 0.007). Diet and exercise both improved body fat; no weight numbers given.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
326 people · adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes
What was tested
5:2 diet with formula meals on 2 days a week, or 2 days of exercise a week, vs routine lifestyle education, for 12 weeks
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
How long
12 weeks
Who has a stake
No disclosure in PubMed
No disclosure in PubMed; government research grants only.
Journal
Diabetes care, 2024
Source
PubMed record 38638032. 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.
  • ✓Large: 326 people.
  • •Lasted 12 weeks.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • •The PubMed record has no conflict-of-interest statement.
  • •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

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    1

    1 benefit

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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

Few other papers sit on the same step, so there is little to compare it with.

Other papers on the same step

None among the papers we read.

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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