"They Said You Could Lose 10 kg Without Mounjaro"...I Tried the MZ Diet and the Result Was Shocking [Experiment Note]

Argentinian research team analyzes 1,995 people
Little difference between intermittent fasting and standard diets
"Total caloric intake matters more than meal timing"

Once the Lunar New Year holiday is over, the mind inevitably becomes restless. You start with a bowl of tteokguk (rice cake soup), then move on to jeon (Korean pancakes), galbi, and japchae in turn, and even add fruit on top of that, so you end up gaining weight in just a few days. Your belt feels a bit tighter, and your pants are somehow less comfortable.

After checking the number on the scale, you naturally start looking for a "quick gain, quick loss" diet method. These days, "intermittent fasting," which has spread like a trend mainly among Millennials & Gen Z, is very popular. It is a method of maintaining a fast for 12 hours a day, or as long as 16 hours.

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This method gained popularity as explanations spread through social media (SNS) and YouTube claiming that "extending fasting time lowers insulin levels and burns body fat." Comedian Hong Hyunhee also lost 10 kg through intermittent fasting, which drew attention. On Instagram alone, there are well over 350,000 posts with related hashtags. But can simply maintaining a fast for a long time really be the decisive factor in losing weight?

"Intermittent fasting is not very different from general diets"

Recently, a research team at Italiano Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, published a study analyzing the effects of intermittent fasting in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, an international academic database. The study combined 22 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 1,995 adults and compared intermittent fasting with a conventional calorie-restricted diet.

The results were different from what many people assume. Intermittent fasting does have a weight-loss effect; however, when compared with general diets that reduce total calorie intake over the same period, there was no significant difference in the amount of weight lost. In other words, it is difficult to say that "simply extending fasting time" magically burns fat.

The researchers summarized their findings by stating, "Weight loss was mainly associated with reductions in total energy intake," and that "the independent effect of meal timing itself was limited."

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"More important than when you eat is how much you eat"

The theoretical background of intermittent fasting involves insulin. The explanation goes that when insulin is secreted after a meal, fat breakdown is suppressed, and the longer the fasting period, the more fat burning is promoted.

In fact, in a short-term metabolic experiment conducted in 2023 by researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, they observed that the longer the fasting period, the more fat oxidation in the body gradually increased, while carbohydrate oxidation decreased. This study compared a fasting state of up to 60 hours with a normal eating state in healthy men, and it demonstrated a human metabolic response in which prolonged fasting leads the body to use more fat as an energy source.

However, the recent study pointed out that changes in body weight over the long term are determined more by how many calories are consumed in total than by meal timing.

Even if you maintain a long fasting period, if you consume more calories at subsequent meals, your total calorie intake does not decrease much. Conversely, even without restricting meal timing, if you reduce your total daily calorie intake, your weight will go down. The explanation is that the total amount of food consumed has a more direct impact on body weight than the timing of meals.

Intermittent fasting can help with appetite control

This does not mean that intermittent fasting is completely useless. For some participants, restricting eating to certain hours can actually help control appetite and serve as a structural mechanism to reduce snacking. In reality, there are quite a few people who show high adherence (long-term sustainability) to this pattern.

The important point, however, is that if the total calorie intake is the same, the weight-loss effect is not significantly different from that of a standard calorie-restricted diet. This is why many experts view it not as a special method, but simply as one more eating pattern.

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For Lunar New Year weight gain, the real solution is the "classic approach"

Recently, with the emergence of anti-obesity drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro, some people say, "It's become an easy world for losing weight." You no longer need to sweat through exercise or struggle to suppress a surging appetite, which certainly seems convenient.

However, medications come with side effects. Nausea, vomiting, and bloating are typical examples. There is also the problem of losing muscle mass along with body weight. Cases of people experiencing rebound weight gain after stopping the medication are also frequently reported.

Even with advances in technology, the basics of weight management have not changed much. You need to reduce total calorie intake, consume sufficient protein, and protect your muscles by combining this with strength training.

Intermittent fasting works well for some people, while a traditional calorie-controlled diet suits others better. The key is to choose a sustainable method of weight management that fits you personally.

It is often said that there is a two-week "golden time" for losing weight. At least this weekend, instead of extreme fasting, how about skipping one meal and choosing to walk 30 minutes more?