Does the actual fasting window matter as much as total calorie intake, or is IF's benefit mostly just an indirect calorie-control mechanism?
A lot of IF discussion frames the fasting window itself as having distinct metabolic benefits (autophagy, insulin sensitivity) separate from simple calorie restriction. But some of the research comparing IF to standard calorie restriction with similar total intake shows pretty comparable outcomes, which makes it seem like the main mechanism might just be that a restricted eating window naturally leads to eating less, rather than the window itself doing something metabolically specialNot sure if the current research actually supports meaningful benefits independent of calorie intake, or if IF is really just a behavioral tool that happens to make calorie control easier for a lot of people without genuinely different metabolic effects at matched calories via /r/intermittentfasting https://ift.tt/DBdc6gF
