A team of scientists led by the University of Granada (UGR), the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) and the CIBER has shown that intermittent fasting (reducing the number of hours of intake and extending the hours of fasting each day) is an effective method for losing weight and improves cardiovascular health in people with obesity problems. Their work, published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine , reveals that eating the last meal before 5pm and then not eating dinner at night is a safe and effective strategy for reducing subcutaneous abdominal fat, i.e.
the fat just under the skin, especially after periods of excess such as Christmas. In Spain, the prevalence of overweight and obesity reaches 70% in men and 50% in women, which is associated with multiple metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes and exponentially increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and certain types of cancer. This alarming weight gain in the population not only impacts people's quality of life, but also represents a major challenge for the public health system.
Scientific research is working hard to implement effective yet simple strategies to treat this problem, which is now considered a disease. Calorie restriction diets help weight loss and improve cardiovascular health. However, they are not easy to maintain in the long term and often lead to most people eventually dropping out of treatment and thus regaining lost weight, or even gaining more than their st.
