Intermittent fasting, a weight loss program that calls for restricting one’s food consumption to certain hours of the day, can reportedly influence women’s fertility.

A study conducted on fish models showed intermittent fasting disproportionately affects women and men. The study was focused on the zebrafish models because humans and the species are very similar on the genetic level.

The findings of the study were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences.

While on the weight loss program, females experienced a drop in egg and offspring quality. The male sperm quality was also affected through the course of the weight loss program.

“Time-restricted fasting is an eating pattern where people limit their food consumption to certain hours of the day. It’s a well-liked health and fitness trend and individuals are doing it to shed weight and improve their health. But the way in which organisms reply to food shortages can affect the standard of eggs and sperm, and such effects could potentially proceed after the tip of the fasting period. We wanted to seek out out more about how these forms of diets can affect fertility in a well-liked model organism,” Prof Alexei Maklakov, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences, said in a news release.

The research team ran in-depth research to seek out out what happened when the body was supplied with food after a period of fasting. They measured how the food components were split to serve the twin purpose of maintaining the body and sperm or egg production, in addition to the standard of the resulting offspring, Phys.org reported.

“What we found is that time-restricted fasting affects reproduction in a different way in women and men. Once the fish returned to their normal feeding schedule, females increased the variety of offspring they produced at the associated fee of egg quality leading to reduced quality of offspring. The standard of male sperm also decreased,” said Dr. Edward Ivimey-Cook, from UEA’s School of Biological Sciences. “These findings underscore the importance of considering not only the effect of fasting on body maintenance but in addition on the production of eggs and sperm.”

“Importantly, a few of the negative effects on eggs and sperm quality may be seen after the animals returned to their normal levels of food consumption following time-restricted fasting. More research is required to know how long it takes for sperm and egg quality to return back to normal after the period of fasting.”

Intermittent fasting is straightforward, straight to the purpose and effective.
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