Intermittent Fasting Is Essentially the Same as Calorie Counting, New Study Says

Restricting your food intake to certain hours is just another way to count calories, according to a new study

With stars from Jennifer Aniston to Chris Pratt praising intermittent fasting, the time-restricted approach to eating has become a popular weight-loss tool.

Devotees like the ease of the system, where you limit your eating hours to a portion of the day, then "fast" during the remaining hours to lose weight. Past critics have said that intermittent fasting wasn’t measurably “beneficial” to weight loss compared to the traditional calorie-counting method, where a person simply eats fewer calories than they burn in a day.

But, a new study shows that calorie counting and intermittent fasting are equally effective when it comes to weight loss.

The reason is simple: Those who adhere to time-restricted eating end up consuming fewer calories.

Essentially, limiting caloric intake can be done through intermittent fasting, which might be easier —and require less effort — for some people. Those result is the same: fewer calories, but without measuring food, checking labels, or going through the often time-consuming steps that traditional calorie-counting can require.

Related: Stars Who've Found Success with Intermittent Fasting

The new research comes from a study conducted by Krista Varady, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Chicago. She recruited 90 adults with obesity and found that those who did intermittent fasting versus those who counted calories had an average weight-loss difference of just 2 lbs.

“The key take-away is that you can basically achieve the same amount of energy restriction by counting time instead of counting calories," Varady told NPR.

"People usually eat within a 12-to-14-hour window, so all we're doing is cutting out around six hours," she says. "Mainly we're cutting out, I think, after-dinner snacks."

That echoes what model Molly Sims wrote while praising intermittent fasting: "Especially if you've been eating late dinners, or snacking and drinking late at night at parties, this can be helpful to try to reset."

So by adhering to a predetermined window, intermittent fasting can help those who struggle with late-night snacks — although Varady's study utilized a later, and longer, window for eating.

For Varady’s study, the intermittent fasting group had an eight-hour window to consume calories — noon until 8 p.m. "From a feasibility perspective, I just don't know anyone who is going to stop eating by 4 p.m. every day," Varady told NPR. "If you can do that or if it fits into your lifestyle, then, sure, go ahead."

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Another key feature of the study was that participants met regularly with dieticians — which one doctor says is essential for a successful weight-loss journey.

“Most people who are doing this are not doing it with any type of dietary or behavioral support. They're doing it on their own," Dr. Adam Gilden, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, told NPR.  

Golden authored an editorial that was published with Varady’s study, and maintains that support is essential to successful weight loss.

Related: I Tried Goop's 4-Week Intuitive Fasting Plan — and It Changed How I Eat Now

And although weight loss is generally the main motivation why someone might start intermittent fasting, time-restricted eating may hold other benefits.

According to a 2019 paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine,  intermittent fasting can help people combat diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurologic disorders — as well as obesity.

And as nutrition expert Naomi Whittel told PEOPLE, "It’s really, really healthy for us. It improves our immune systems” — and she praises the practice not just as a way to lose weight, but as “a lifestyle."

That said, intermittent fasting can be harmful to some people, and is not advised for those who struggle with disordered eating.

A  2022 study found an actual link between the time-restricted approach and disordered eating. "Intermittent fasting...was significantly associated with eating disorder psychopathology," wrote study authors.

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