A new study from the National Institutes of Health finds that intermittent fasting is actually ridiculously easy, especially for people who can sleep until noon.
“We knew there were health benefits to intermittent fasting,” says Ashley M. Foster, Ph.D., an NIDDK senior investigator, and the study’s lead author. “But we had no idea how crazy easy the diet would be when participants just slept through the whole morning.”
During the study, all participants were asked to fast for 12 hours a day, but one group did this while conducting a normal work schedule and the other group was allowed to sleep until noon. Amazingly, the group that slept later had more success with the diet and found it to be unbelievably easy.
“People in the control group were super bummed when they realized that snacking on cookies at midnight meant that they couldn’t eat again until lunchtime,” says Foster. “But the group that slept until noon was like ‘is this really a diet?’”
The control group had a 68% success rate with sticking with the diet, while the group that slept until noon had a 100% success rate. One participant wrote “this was cake” in her feedback.
“Overall we’re happy with the results,” says Foster. “If you want to try intermittent fasting, it’s as easy as forgoing all your responsibilities until the afternoon so you can sleep for 12 straight hours, and then you pretty much just eat whatever you want.”
“I love science.”
