Do Adults Utilizing Intermittent Fasting Improve Lipids More Than Those Following a Restricted-Calorie Diet? A Clin-IQ

With approximately 95 million Americans diagnosed with high cholesterol, and many searching for a nonmedicinal treatment, intermittent fasting as a method to improve health has become increasingly popular in the lay public. We conducted a clinical inquiry to determine whether intermittent fasting is superior to a low-calorie diet in improving lipids, searching the Cochrane, EBSCOhost, Embase, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases using the terms intermittent fasting, lipids, and calorie-restricted diet. Studies that included surgical weight loss or medicine-assisted weight loss were excluded. We identified 6 published studies, 5 of which were randomized controlled trials. In reviewing the selected studies, there did not appear to be a consistent difference in lipid change between restricted-calorie diet and intermittent fasting. Because of differences in study methods and in how intermittent fasting was defined, additional studies are needed.