If you ignore the science for a minute, the anecdotes I hear from folks is that "counting calories doesn't work" and "intermittent fasting does work". So identi

If you ignore the science for a minute, the anecdotes I hear from folks is that "counting calories doesn't work" and "intermittent fasting does work". So identifying a mechanism of action would help us develop strategies to help more Americans lose weight (with associated wins for mortality, sleep health, diabetes, etc.). I have always found it surprising that intermittent fasting works at all -- I'd assume that during the eating period you'd be so hungry you would compensate by over-eating. ("I only get two meals today, so let's eat two meals' worth of food at the start and end of the eating window.") If intermittent fasting caused you to lose weight despite a higher caloric intake, that would make me reevaluate the calorie model of weight loss. This study shows that controlling for calorie intake shows the same results. That implies to me that, in part, this is a _human factors_ problem (people lying to themselves when counting) which implies we should try different kinds of interventions.