Fasting for 14 hours a day could make you feel less hungry, have more energy and put you in a better mood, according to a new study.
Results from a trial reveal that restricting your food consumption to a 10-hour set window, for example only eating between 9am and 7pm, can have positive health benefits.
Some intermittent fasting advocates promote restrictive eating windows as low as six hours, such as eating all your food between 11am and 5pm.
But a team of researchers from King’s College London found that less restrictive windows can still lead to positive changes in mood, energy and hunger.
The researchers utilised the ZOE app, which allows participants to log their health daily.
More than 37,000 people on the app completed the study, during which they were asked to eat as normal for a week and then only eat during a 10-hour eating window for the following fortnight.
They were also asked to log information about their mood, energy and hunger levels.
Analysis revealed that those who fasted for 14 hours a day reported higher energy and mood and were less hungry.
Those who were consistent with their eating window had greater benefits than those who varied their eating window day to day.
And nearly all participants opted to continue the intervention for additional weeks.
Dr Sarah Berry, researcher at King’s College London and chief scientist at ZOE, said: ‘This is the largest study outside of a tightly controlled clinic to show that intermittent fasting can improve your health in a real world setting.
‘What’s really exciting is that the findings show you don’t have to be very restrictive to see positive results.
‘A 10-hour eating window, which was manageable for most people, improved mood, energy levels and hunger.
-Daily Mail.uk
