Dr. Takla was recently featured in an article in the February 2024 issue of New Hampshire magazine:
Time to Eat
Trim your waistline with intermittent fasting
February 22, 2024
The article explores intermittent fasting and its potential to produce varying outcomes compared to traditional calorie restriction methods. Due to the diverse underlying causes of obesity among individuals, it remains uncertain whether intermittent fasting will yield enduring results, even if you initially experience some success with it, according to Dr. Hany Takla, a bariatric surgeon and head of the Department of Surgery at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital.
“We don’t know what happens if you aren’t giving your body what it needs and what the long-term effect of that is on your body,” he says. “Over time, intermittent fasting might not be as effective for you as when you first started. Your body has a defense mechanism against being deprived metabolically and physiologically.”
Essentially, your body may adapt to intermittent fasting, much like it does to prolonged adherence to a low-calorie diet or exercise regimen. Additionally, discontinuing fasting could lead to the familiar cycle of weight regain, commonly experienced with previous dieting attempts. For individuals with a body mass index (BMI) over 35 accompanied by conditions such as diabetes or heart disease, or those with a BMI of 40, surgical intervention might offer more sustainable outcomes.
“Bariatric surgery has been around since the 1960s, and people who’ve had gastric bypass have achieved great long-term success,” Takla says. “I tell my patients, when you’re at a certain BMI and have medical issues, these diets and medications work, but they are not as effective as surgery, and in the long term, they are not as sustainable. When they ask me about diets, I tell them to try it, but at a certain body mass index, dieting is not as effective as people think.”