Abstract
Intermittent fasting (IF) has gained attention as a promising diet for weight loss and dysmetabolic diseases management. This systematic review aimed to investigate the effects of IF on cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs). A systematic literature search was carried out using three electronic databases, namely PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, until October 2020. Randomized controlled trials that compared the IF intervention with a control group diet were included. Fourteen effect sizes were expressed as weighted mean difference (WMD) using a fixed-effects model and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Compared to the ones within control groups, participants exposed to the IF intervention reduced their body weight (WMD, −1.78 kg; 95% CI, −2.21 to −1.35; p <0.05), waist circumference (WMD, −1.19 cm; 95% CI, −1.8 to −0.57; p <0.05), fat mass (WMD, −1.26 kg; 95% CI, −1.57 to −0.95; p <0.05), body mass index (WMD, −0.58 kg/m2; 95% CI, −0.8 to −0.37; p <0.05), systolic blood pressure (WMD, −2.14 mmHg; 95% CI: −3.54 to −0.73; p <0.05), diastolic blood pressure (WMD: −1.38 mmHg, 95% CI, −2.35 to −0.41, p <0.05), fasting blood glucose (WMD: −0.053 mmol/L; 95% CI: −0.105 to 0.001; p <0.05), fasting insulin (WMD, −0.8 mIU/L; 95% CI, −1.15 to −0.44; p <0.05), insulin resistance (WMD, −0.21; 95% CI, −0.36 to −0.05; p <0.05), total cholesterol (WMD, −0.10 mmol/L; 95% CI, −0.17 to −0.02; p <0.05), and triglycerides (WMD, −0.09 mmol/L; 95% CI, −0.13 to −0.04; p <0.05). No effects were observed for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or glycosylated hemoglobin. This meta-analysis supports the role of IF in improving the component composition of CMRFs, including weight, waist circumference, fat mass, BMI, blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance, compared to a control group diet. Further research on IF interventions should take into account long-term and well-designed administration to draw definitive conclusions.
Highlights
The term “cardiometabolic risk” was first employed by the American Diabetes Association [1] as an umbrella term to include all risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) [2]
After filtering the titles and abstracts to exclude irrelevant articles, we found 106 articles that met the topic of interest
46 articles from the database searches were included in the meta-analysis [12, 22, 31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75]
Summary
The term “cardiometabolic risk” was first employed by the American Diabetes Association [1] as an umbrella term to include all risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) [2]. Cardiometabolic risk factors (CMRFs), including obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia, are major contributors to atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers [3]. Mortality from cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, CVD, and coronary heart disease has increased, and CVD is the leading cause of death [5]. Calorie restriction is an effective management strategy for CMRFs [6]. Intermittent fasting (IF), an important measure of energy restriction, significantly improves metabolic disease [7,8,9,10]
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