Intermittent fasting: Describing engagement and associations with eating disorder behaviors and psychopathology among Canadian adolescents and young adults

Summary

This study used data from the Canadian Study of Adolescent Health Behaviors — a national survey of 2,762 adolescents and young adults — to ask how common intermittent fasting is and whether it correlates with eating-disorder behaviors. The engagement numbers were striking: roughly 48 percent of women, 38 percent of men, and 52 percent of transgender or gender-non-conforming respondents reported practicing some form of intermittent fasting in the past 12 months. The researchers used the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire alongside modified Poisson regression to measure associations. Across all three gender groups, intermittent fasting in the past 12 months and the past 30 days was significantly associated with elevated eating-disorder psychopathology — disordered cognitions, restrictive behaviors, and binge-purge cycles. The pattern was strongest and most consistent in women. The authors do not claim fasting causes eating disorders; the data are cross-sectional and cannot prove direction. They argue clinicians screening young patients should treat self-reported intermittent fasting as a meaningful flag.