Adherence and Quality of Life Across Three Different Intermittent Fasting Protocols in Obese Working Women

Overview

In these recent years, Intermittent Fasting (IF) has become popular among the public and health fraternities not only because it produced evidence-based results as an alternative dietary approach in weight loss strategy, but also putative for its practical implementation to link with daily routine. IF is defined as a range of dietary regimens involving fasting for an extended time period (16-48hrs) with little to no energy intake on fast day. However, there are many types of IF regiments with different methodological approaches, and results are inconsistent and debatable. Therefore, it has raised a question on which IF regimen design will possibly maximise the health benefit. Thus, the aim of this study is to identify IF regimens that are most feasible and acceptable to working women. The purpose of this study was to examine which type of IF regiment is more feasible for weight loss intervention programmes by prescribing three different types of IF to participants

The order in which participants get the interventions was randomized. Body composition were measured before and after intervention by using inBody machine and a quality of life survey was conducted at the end of the intervention by using the Short Form (SF-12) Health Survey form. Adherence to the IF protocol were monitored througout the intervention period of 4 weeks. The procedure of 3 different types of IF regiment: Time restricted eating (TRE), Periodic Fasting 2days/week (PF5:2) and Modified Alternate Day Fasting (MADF). Participants were assigned to one of these three IF groups. Participation in this study was completely voluntary. Benefit of Study: This study provided education on food selection during IF implementation, food intake monitoring/record strategy, and established support system that motivated participants to continue healthy dietary intake and make it a lifestyle. Risk of study: Participation in this study was at minimal risk. However, participants were informed that if they ever feel uncomfortable during the study, they may decide to stop at any time and notify us through support group that was developed and accessible by all participants. Confidentiality: All of the data collected were held confidential. In anything we write or present, participants name remained anonymous. All the data collected were stored in a device protected with password which is accessible by researchers only. Hardcopy documents with participants details, i.e name, address and other personal information were kept in a dedicated drawer located at nutrition lab at Faculty of Sport and Exercise Sciences and accessible to researchers only.