Intermittent fasting might not be better than counting calories. Here’s why it still could work for you.

As weight-loss plans go, it’s easy to see the allure of intermittent fasting: Eat what you want, but only during certain windows of time — often just eight hours a day. But does time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, really help people shed pounds and boost health? Intermittent fasting is a meal strategy where people switch between fasting and eating on a regular schedule, defined as at least 14 hours with no food, Peterson said. Time-restricted eating, where people condense all of their eating into a daily window of 10 hours or less, is the most popular form of intermittent fasting. “Our data right now suggests that time-restricted eating isn’t any better or worse than cutting calories,” Peterson said.