Daily calorie restriction and alternate day fasting for type 2 diabetes prevention

Abstract

Lifestyle intervention is one of the important strategies for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Recently, caloric restriction regimen has become a hot topic as one of the cornerstone of lifestyle intervention. The alternate day fasting regimen is simple, and increases the patient compliance. Both daily calorie restriction and alternate day fasting regimen can reduce body-weight significantly in pre-diabetes subjects, and reduce the visceral fat mass and the fasting insulin levels, and improve the insulin sensitivity, as well as maintain the lean mass, though the effect on fasting blood glucose was not significant. Nevertheless, the most recent studies have demonstrated that daily calorie restriction, in particular, alternate day fasting regimens can be effective in individuals with pre-diebates in order to prevent type 2 diabetes. (Chin J Endocrinol Metab, 2016, 32: 433-436) Key words: Daily calorie restriction; Alternate day fasting; Diabetes mellitus, type 2; Prevention