Table 1.

Meta-analytic results for the effects of intermittent fasting on body composition.

Outcomes	k	Point estimate	CI lower	CI upper	P	Heterogeneity
						Q-value	P	I2
Body Weight (kg)*
All studies	25	−0.347	−0.488	−0.205	<0.001	153.762	<0.001	84.391
Only Ramadan IF studies	23	−0.234	−0.341	−0.127	<0.001	77.564	<0.001	71.636
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	2	−1.845	−2.213	−1.477	<0.001	0.016	0.899	0.000
Body Weight (kg)**
All studies	28	−0.334	−0.537	−0.13	0.001	85.219	<0.001	68.317
Only Ramadan IF studies	6	−0.353	−0.651	−0.054	0.02	0.839	0.974	0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	22	−0.341	−0.584	−0.098	0.006	83.593	<0.001	74.878
BMI (kg/m2)*
All studies
Only Ramadan IF studiesa	16	−0.212	−0.353	−0.072	0.003	69.694	<0.001	78.477
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
BMI (kg/m2)**
All studies	17	−0.655	−0.97	−0.341	<0.001	70.116	<0.001	77.181
Only Ramadan IF studies	3	−0.439	−1.017	0.138	0.136	1.229	0.541	0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	14	−0.699	−1.05	−0.347	<0.001	68.735	<0.001	81.087
Fat Mass (kg)*
All studies	13	−0.996	−1.351	−0.641	<0.001	196.692	<0.001	93.899
Only Ramadan IF studies	5	−0.376	−0.618	−0.135	0.002	47.803	<0.001	85.357
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	5	−1.963	−2.243	−1.682	<0.001	6.682	0.154	40.138
Fat Mass (kg)**
All studies	24	−0.435	−0.65	−0.22	<0.001	78.722	<0.001	70.783
Only Ramadan IF studies	2	−0.286	−0.985	0.413	0.423	0.002	0.966	0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	22	−0.447	−0.673	−0.221	<0.001	78.717	<0.001	73.322
Fat Mass (%)*
All studies	15	−0.324	−0.477	−0.171	<0.001	58.248	<0.001	75.965
Only Ramadan IF studiesa	12	−0.197	−0.312	−0.082	0.001	25.459	0.008	56.793
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	3	−1.073	−1.4	−0.746	<0.001	3.621	0.164	44.763
Fat Mass (%)**
All studies	12	−0.237	−0.449	−0.025	0.029	6.04	0.871	0.000
Only Ramadan IF studies	4	−0.533	−1.025	−0.04	0.034	2.408	0.492	0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	8	−0.169	−0.404	0.066	0.158	1.93	0.964	0.000
Fat Free Mass (kg)*
All studies	15	−0.023	−0.193	0.146	0.788	66.465	<0.001	78.936
Only Ramadan IF studies	10	−0.142	−0.324	0.041	0.129	39.933	<0.001	77.462
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	5	0.306	0.133	0.48	0.001	5.869	0.209	31.843
Fat Free Mass (kg)**
All studies	22	0.032	−0.122	0.186	0.684	33.663	0.039	37.617
Only Ramadan IF studies	5	−0.203	−0.599	0.192	0.314	0.214	0.995	0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies	17	0.073	−0.106	0.251	0.425	32.287	0.009	50.445

^*Pre-post tests, IF intervention;

^**Pre-post tests, IF intervention vs. control; *BMI, all studies (k = 16); *Body Weight (kg), all studies (k = 25); *Body Weight (kg), Ramadan IF studies (k = 23); *Body Weight (kg), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 2); **Body Weight (kg), all studies (k = 28); ^**Body Weight (kg), Ramadan IF studies (k = 6); **Body Weight (kg), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 22); *BMI, Ramadan IF studies (k = 16); **BMI, all studies (k = 17); **BMI, Ramadan IF studies (k = 3); **BMI, non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 14); *Fat Mass (kg), all studies (k = 13); *Fat Mass (kg), Ramadan IF studies (k = 8); *Fat Mass (kg), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 5); **Fat Mass (kg), all studies (k = 24); **Fat Mass (kg), Ramadan IF studies (k = 2); **Fat Mass (kg), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 22); *Fat Mass (%), all studies (k = 15); *Fat Mass (%), Ramadan IF studies (k = 12); *Fat Mass (%), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 3); ^**Fat Mass (%), all studies (k = 12); **Fat Mass (%), Ramadan IF studies (k = 4); **Fat Mass (%), non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 8); *Fat Free Mass, all studies (k = 15), *Fat Free Mass, Ramadan IF studies (k = 10); *Fat Free Mass, non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 5); **Fat Free Mass, all studies (k = 22), **Fat Free Mass, Ramadan IF studies (k = 5); **Fat Free Mass, non-Ramadan IF studies (k = 17).

CI, confidence interval; BMI, body mass index; IF, intermittent fasting.

^aSensitivity analysis: Results are no longer significant when excluding studies with weak methodological quality. The bold values are statistically significant values.