Application of Intermittent Fasting for Self-Management in Overweight and Obese Adults: a Scoping Review
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: With the sustained development of social economy and the steady improvement of people’s living standards, the population of individuals who are overweight or obese has increased sharply. Key facts from WHO (2025) indicate that in 2022, 2.5 billion adults (18 years and older) were overweight. Of these, 890 million were living with obesity.In 2022, 43% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight and 16% were living with obesity[1].This issue has emerged as a major public health concern that urgently needs to be addressed[2].The Global Obesity Atlas notes that the global prevalence of overweight and obesity continues to worsen, with nearly 3 billion adults expected to be affected by 2030—approximately half of the adult population[3]，It is projected that by 2035, more than 1.77 billion adults worldwide will be overweight (with 1.53 billion of them meeting the criteria for obesity), accounting for 54% of the global adult population[4].Overweight and obesity not only elevate the risk of cardiovascular diseases, dysglycemia, mental disorders and other illnesses, but are also strongly linked to the development and progression of multiple malignancies[5-7]，it seriously threatens people’s quality of life and physical health，However, most countries around the world have yet to establish comprehensive prevention and control policies and public health service systems, and there is an urgent need to implement systematic prevention and control measures through environmental improvements, the promotion of healthy diets, the encouragement of physical activity, and multisectoral collaboration[3]. Therefore, individuals who are overweight or obese generally require long-term self-management.Self-management plays an indispensable core role in this process. As a chronic and relapsing metabolic disease, the management of overweight and obesity is highly dependent on effective self-management behaviors. Self-management refers to a series of actions taken by individuals and their caregivers to maintain physical and mental health, specifically including multiple aspects such as dietary intervention, regular exercise, and psychological maintenance[8]. In 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed guidelines suggesting that daily intermittent fasting could serve as a culturally appropriate intervention for reshaping eating behaviors and improving metabolism and weight management. Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a dietary pattern that periodically schedules "feeding" and "fasting" periods[9]，mainly including time-restricted eating, alternate-day fasting, and the 5:2 diet pattern[7].In recent years, time-restricted eating, as a new dietary approach, has been widely applied in studies involving overweight and obese adults. The intervention effects and mechanism of action of this approach have also attracted considerable attention. Several studies[10,11] have demonstrated that intermittent fasting can improve body weight in obese populations;other research[12] has revealed the potential of intermittent fasting as a weight-loss intervention,and such dietary regimens also contribute to improvements in cardiometabolic health;further studies[13] have reported that time-restricted eating (TRE) is beneficial for reducing body weight and fat mass without adversely affecting mood status. Although there are currently studies focusing on the self-management effects of intermittent fasting for overweight and obese individuals[10,14-16], there is a lack of systematic review and summary. In view of this, this scoping review will focus on the application of intermittent fasting in self-management of overweight and obese adults, systematically sort out the existing relevant literature, clarify the current research status, identify research gaps, and provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for the application of intermittent fasting to assist overweight and obese adults in self-management in clinical practice.
Source: OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints)
Author: Chen, Rui
Language: English
Topic: Dietary Effects on Health
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7163036172