According to the nutritionist, widespread confusion prevents real benefits from intermittent fasting.
On social media, intermittent fasting is often presented as an almost automatic solution. You skip a meal, you narrow your eating window, and the rest will follow. This vision appeals because it promises fewer rules, fewer calculations and fewer visible constraints. However, when we move away from the slogans and look at what nutrition says, the picture is much more nuanced. The principle of intermittent fasting is not magical, and its effects depend on very specific parameters that many prefer to ignore.
In a video recently published on Instagram, Jean-Michel Cohen points out that, strictly speaking in terms of weight loss, intermittent fasting does not outperform traditional dietary approaches. “What’s the point in terms of weight loss? In fact, intermittent fasting gives results roughly comparable to a Mediterranean diet for equal calories.” In other words, with the same energy intake, the results are similar. Fasting therefore does not invent anything revolutionary, it mainly modifies the organization of meals. This clarification is important, because it breaks the idea that the simple fact of not eating for several hours would automatically trigger weight loss.
Where intermittent fasting scores points, according to the nutritionist, is elsewhere. Eliminating a meal during the day changes logistics, reduces the number of food decisions and limits certain repeated stimulations. “Simply eliminating a meal makes it easier to implement a diet”he emphasizes. This can help some people to keep up over time, especially those who quickly feel overwhelmed by traditional nutritional rules. But Jean-Michel Cohen specifies: “It doesn’t make it easier, it makes it simpler to implement.” In other words, the method does not exempt you from thinking about what you eat, nor about the composition of the remaining meals.
This is precisely where many people go wrong. The media success of intermittent fasting established the idea that it would function independently, as if the body naturally compensated for the rest. The specialist says: “People, those who are convinced that young intermittent workers alone are enough are making a mistake. Young intermittent workers are not enough.” Indeed, it remains essential to monitor your caloric intake when eating outside of fasting. Otherwise, cutting out a meal has no benefit on weight loss.
An important reminder since it explains why some people see no results despite apparent discipline on schedules. Fasting can be a tool, sometimes relevant, sometimes comfortable, but it is only of interest if it is part of a coherent overall logic.
