Accuracy of Intermittent Fasting Guidance in Blogs Used by Personal Trainers from a Gym in South Africa

This project examined the accuracy of blog sources personal trainers in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa use to educate themselves on the topic of intermittent fasting. Through literature review, different types of intermittent fasting were researched such as time-restricted feeding, periodic fasting, and alternate day fasting as well as the role intermittent fasting plays in weight loss and modifying risk factors for health conditions such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. A small convenience sample of five personal trainers were used to conduct one-on-one semi-structured interviews in a local gym to determine what sources of information they use to educate themselves on intermittent fasting and if they use any blog sources. The top three blog sources were determined based on frequency of mention and manual deductive qualitative coding was applied to blog articles from each blog source in order to determine accuracy of information in two key criteria: timing of feeding and fasting, and instructions on caloric intake. The third criteria, type of references used in each blog article, was recorded and combined with accuracy of the other two criteria to calculate an average reliability score. Accuracy in both timing of feeding and fasting, and instructions on caloric intake fell between 86 and 100%, for the three blog sites, and the average reliability scores fell between 85 and 95%. Another component of this project focused on a qualitative evaluation regarding statements of health benefits made in each blog article as well as the type of reference used to substantiate each health benefit claim based on a hierarchy of scientific evidence.1 There were sixty seven total unique health benefit claims made in the articles from all three blog sources. One hundred percent of those claims had cited references justifying each claim. Forty three percent of the cited references were either Meta analyses and systematic reviews or randomized controlled trials. The findings show that the blog sources these personal trainers use to educate themselves on intermittent fasting are accurate and use top tiers of the hierarchy of scientific evidence to substantiate health benefit claims that are made in the articles.