Similar late effects of a 7-week orthodox religious fasting and a time restricted eating pattern on anthropometric and metabolic profiles of overweight adults
Spyridon Ν. Karras, Theocharis Koufakis, Lilian Adamidou, Stergios A. Pοlyzos, Paraskevi Karalazou, Katerina Thisiadou, Pantelis Zebekakis, Kali Makedou, Kalliopi Kotsa
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.