Similar late effects of a 7-week orthodox religious fasting and a time restricted eating pattern on anthropometric and metabolic profiles of overweight adults.

ABSTRACT

A hypocaloric diet, based on Orthodox fasting (OF) was followed by 29 overweight adults. A low-calorie, 16/8, time restricted eating (TRE) pattern was followed by 16 age- and weight-matched participants. Anthropometric, lipid, glycaemic and inflammation markers were assessed at baseline, at the end of the intervention (7 weeks from baseline) and 6 weeks after the cessation of diets (13 weeks from baseline). There was a trend of weight loss in both groups, which was evident at week 7 (TRE -2.1 ± 1.0; OF -2.0 ± 0.5 kg, p < 0.001 from baseline) and remained significant at week 13 (TRE -2.9 ± 0.7; OF -2.6 ± 0.3 kg, p < 0.001 from baseline). In the OF group, lipid concentrations declined at week 7 compared with baseline, increasing at week 13 compared with week 7. Our findings suggest that OF promotes a decrease in lipid concentrations, which however, is not evident 6 weeks after its end.