Fasting after every two days may help fight obesity

Washington: Are unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyle taking a toll on your body weight? Then here's a solution---one day of fasting after every two days may help to fight obesity and other metabolic disorders, suggests a recent study.

According to researchers, an intermittent fasting, up to 16 weeks, without otherwise having to count calories may help fight obesity and other metabolic disorders. According to researchers, such fasting already shows benefits after only six weeks.

The findings, conducted by Kyoung-Han Kim and Yun Hye Kim, indicated that intermittent fasting in mice helped to kick-start the animals' metabolism and to burn fat by generating body heat. The research team was led by Hoon-Ki Sung of The Hospital for Sick Children in Ontario, Canada.

The research has shown that our unhealthy eating habits and sedentary lifestyles are playing a major role in the development of lifestyle-related metabolic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity. They exposed the groups of mice to 16 weeks of intermittent fasting.

The recurring regimen saw the animals being fed for two days, followed by one day without anything to eat. Their calorie intake was not adjusted otherwise. Four months later, the mice in the fasting group weighed less than those in the control group who continued to eat the same volume of food.

The lower body weight of the mice in the fasting group was not the only effect. The fasting regime helped lower fat build-up in the white fat by increasing the brown-like fat, which involved in burning energy and producing body heat of mice on the high fat diet.

Their glucose and insulin systems also remained more stable. They found that such intermittent fasting tempers an immune reaction in fat cells. "Intermittent fasting without a reduction in calorie intake can be a preventative and therapeutic approach against obesity and metabolic disorders," says Kyoung-Han Kim.

The research appears in journal Cell Research.