A short burst of intermittent fasting might help people keep weight off for a whole year.

Other research found that people who ate very little on three days a week and ate normally the rest of the time lost more weight and kept it off longer than those who cut calories every day. That’s a pretty interesting twist — it suggests the pattern of eating, not just the total calories, might play a role in long-term success. But keep in mind, this wasn’t the exact same program described in the post, and we don’t know if the results would hold for everyone. Still, it’s a hopeful sign that flexible eating patterns could stick better than strict daily diets.