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Skipping breakfast proves weight and waist loss winner

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Encouraging Australians to skip breakfast and all snacks between 8pm and midday might be the best way to tackle our epidemic of central obesity, fatty liver disease and their complications.

While the recommendation goes against the grain for breakfast lovers, evidence is growing that watching the clock rather than counting calories has health benefits beyond weight loss.

Speaking at Australian Gastroenterology Week, Melbourne gastroenterologist Dr Alex Hodge said non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was an increasing problem currently affecting more than 5.5 million Australians.

“Experimental studies have shown that restricting access to food, without calorie restriction, prevented animals developing conditions such as fatty liver disease. Yet there have been no high quality human trials looking at intermittent fasting in this patient group,” he said.

Dr Hodge, from Monash University and Monash Health, randomised 32 patients with NAFLD to either intermittent fasting – no calories between 8pm and midday the following day – or standard diet and exercise advice.

While all patients lost weight over the initial 12 weeks of the study, patients who fasted also reduced their waist circumference – one of the best indicators of liver damage.

The fasting group also had improvements in visceral fat, insulin resistance, blood pressure, and other measures of liver damage.


“When the standard care group was changed to intermittent fasting for an additional 12 weeks, they continued to show improvements. However the fasting group started gaining weight and waist circumference when crossed over to standard care.”

Dr Hodge said the 16-hour fasting period was relatively easy to tolerate and easier than counting calories. Interestingly, there was no difference in calorie intake, activity levels, quality of life or hunger between the two groups.

“Despite the small numbers of participants in this novel study there was a significant health benefit from intermittent fasting.”

“NAFLD is a red flag for other conditions – associated with three times the rate of diabetes and twice the rate of heart disease. About five per cent of NAFLD patients will go onto to develop cirrhosis. Anything people can do to lose some weight, and especially around the waist, will delay the onset of illness,” he said.

(Source: Gastroenterological Society of Australia)


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Posted On: 23 October, 2014
Modified On: 23 October, 2014

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