Table 3.

Subgroup analysis assessing the effect of exercise as a moderator of the impact of intermittent fasting on body composition.

Moderators	K	Point estimate	CI lower	CI upper	P-value	Heterogeneity
						Q-value	P-value	I-squared
Body Weight (kg)*
All studies
With exercise	8	−0.127	−0.312	0.059	0.182	5.330	0.021	52.046
Without exercise	17	−0.430	−0.609	−0.251	<0.001			87.986
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	8	−0.127	−0.312	0.059	0.182	1.681	0.195	52.046
Without exercise	15	−0.276	−0.407	−0.146	<0.001			76.520
Body Weight (kg)**
All studies
With exercise	8	−0.386	−0.788	0.016	0.06	0.078	0.780	48.868
Without exercise	20	−0.320	−0.557	−0.082	0.008			72.681
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	3	−0.419	−0.775	−0.064	0.021	0.457	0.499	0.000
Without exercise	3	−0.193	−0.744	0.357	0.491			0.000
Only non–Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	5	−0.290	−1.048	0.469	0.454	0.016	0.900	69.912
Without exercise	17	−0.342	−0.603	−0.081	0.010			76.994
BMI (kg/m2)*
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	4	−0.037	−0.181	0.106	0.612	4.417	0.036	0.000
Without exercise	12	−0.280	−0.456	−0.105	0.002			83.232
BMI (kg/m2)**
All studies
With exercise	5	−1.481	−2.581	−0.381	0.008	3.550	0.060	80.758
Without exercise	12	−0.396	−0.648	−0.144	0.002			61.208
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	2	−0.572	−1.286	0.142	0.117	0.381	0.537	0.000
Without exercise	1	−0.189	−1.171	0.793	0.706			0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	3	−2.112	−3.634	−0.59	0.007	4.660	0.031	81.242
Without exercise	11	−0.411	−0.675	−0.147	0.002			64.721
FM (kg)*
All studies
With exercise	3	−0.552	−1.305	0.200	0.150	1.793	0.181	86.618
Without exercise	10	−1.146	−1.58	−0.712	<0.001			94.999
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	2	−0.093	−0.346	0.161	0.473	3.404	0.065	13.04
Without exercise	6	−0.466	−0.772	−0.161	0.003			88.977
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	1	−1.434	−2.117	−0.75	<0.001	2.764	0.096	0.000
Without exercise	4	−2.069	−2.376	−1.762	<0.001			23.425
FM (kg)**
All studies
With exercise	5	−0.779	−1.462	−0.095	0.026	1.279	0.258	65.227
Without exercise	19	−0.364	−0.584	−0.145	0.001			70.205
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	1	−0.271	−1.263	0.721	0.593	0.002	0.966	0.000
Without exercise	1	−0.301	−1.286	0.685	0.549			0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	4	−0.897	−1.718	−0.077	0.032	1.487	0.223	71.000
Without exercise	18	−0.368	−0.594	−0.142	0.001			71.850
FM (%)*
All studies
With exercise	9	−0.386	−0.646	−0.125	0.004	0.448	0.503	76.645
Without exercise	6	−0.274	−0.470	−0.079	0.006			78.206
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	7	−0.148	−0.267	−0.028	0.016	0.573	0.449	0.000
Without exercise	5	−0.236	−0.432	−0.04	0.018			79.574
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	2	−1.271	−1.674	−0.869	<0.001	2.749	0.097	0.000
Without exercise	1	−0.686	−1.249	−0.124	0.017			0.000
FM (%)**
All studies
With exercise	5	−0.523	−0.968	−0.078	0.021	2.054	0.152	0.000
Without exercise	7	−0.153	−0.394	0.088	0.215			0.000
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	3	−0.603	−1.172	−0.034	0.038	0.235	0.627	7.948
Without exercise	1	−0.321	−1.307	0.665	0.524			0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	2	−0.396	−1.112	0.32	0.278	0.432	0.511	0.000
Without exercise	6	−0.142	−0.391	0.107	0.263			0.000
Fat Free Mass (kg)*
All studies
With exercise	7	0.017	−0.101	0.135	0.779	0.178	0.673	0.000
Without exercise	8	−0.054	−0.358	0.251	0.731			88.948
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	6	0.015	−0.106	0.137	0.806	3.282	0.070	0.000
Without exercise	4	−0.357	−0.742	0.027	0.068			89.896
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	1	0.042	−0.438	0.523	0.862	1.333	0.248	0.000
Without exercise	4	0.346	0.160	0.532	<0.001			33.853
Fat Free Mass (kg)**
All studies
With exercise	6	0.015	−0.309	0.339	0.928	0.021	0.884	0.000
Without exercise	16	0.043	−0.138	0.223	0.643			48.726
Only Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	4	−0.234	−0.667	0.198	0.289	0.119	0.731	0.000
Without exercise	1	−0.046	−1.026	0.934	0.927			0.000
Only non-Ramadan IF studies
With exercise	2	0.337	−0.243	0.918	0.255	0.872	0.350	29.138
Without exercise	15	0.047	−0.140	0.234	0.624			52.128

^*Pre-post tests, IF intervention;

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

CI, confidence interval; BMI, body mass index; IF, intermittent fasting. The bold values are statistically significant values.