Does Fasting Lower Blood Pressure and Cholesterol?

In 30 seconds

Intermittent fasting has small, mixed effects on cholesterol and blood pressure. Pooled trials found modest drops in systolic blood pressure and triglycerides with time-restricted eating, but windows under 8 hours raised total and LDL cholesterol. If you take diabetes medicines or diuretics, plan any fast with your clinician.

• Compared with usual diets, time-restricted eating lowered systolic blood pressure by about 5 mm Hg and triglycerides slightly, with no change in diastolic pressure.
• Cholesterol results point both ways: eating windows under 8 hours raised total and LDL cholesterol, and small early-eating studies saw morning triglycerides or cholesterol rise.
• A 5-week trial in 8 men found large blood-pressure drops without weight loss, but larger analyses found smaller effects.
• If you take diabetes medicines or diuretics, plan any fast with your clinician; dehydration can lower blood pressure.

Does fasting lower blood pressure?

Possibly a little. Pooled trials found time-restricted eating lowered systolic pressure by about 5 mm Hg compared with usual diets, without changing diastolic pressure; one very small trial of 8 men saw larger drops.

In a 2026 network meta-analysis of 41 randomized trials (median 8 weeks), time-restricted eating lowered systolic blood pressure by about 5 mm Hg compared with usual diets but did not change diastolic pressure, and eating-time subtypes did not differ significantly from each other.Source 11

In a 5-week controlled-feeding trial in 8 men with prediabetes, early time-restricted eating lowered morning systolic and diastolic blood pressure by about 10 mm Hg without weight loss; a network meta-analysis found only small, low-to-moderate-certainty differences between fasting strategies.Source 33Source 22

Does fasting change cholesterol?

No fasting pattern has proven cholesterol benefits: windows under 8 hours raised total and LDL; pooled trials found some triglyceride drops. Intermittent fasting and insulin.

Compared with usual diets, time-restricted eating lowered triglycerides by about 10 mg/dL, but windows under 8 hours raised total and LDL cholesterol (high certainty); in a second network meta-analysis, no fasting strategy changed HDL cholesterol, and alternate-day fasting lowered total cholesterol, triglycerides and non-HDL cholesterol compared with time-restricted eating.Source 11Source 22

In a 5-week trial in 8 men with prediabetes, early time-restricted eating raised morning triglycerides by about 57 mg/dL and left LDL and HDL cholesterol unchanged (that group had fasted about 18 hours before testing); in a 4-day study in 11 adults it raised morning cholesterol; in a 3-month trial in 108 adults with metabolic syndrome, LDL fell slightly more when time-restricted eating was added to standard care.Source 33Source 44Source 55

What did each study find?

Who should be careful?

Talk to a qualified health professional before fasting if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, under 18, living with or recovering from an eating disorder, have diabetes, take insulin or a medicine affected by meal timing, are an older adult, or are acutely ill. Do not change the dose or timing of any medicine without your clinician. See Blimbi’s safety guide.

Related guides

• Does Intermittent Fasting Affect Insulin?

  Small trials and a 2025 network meta-analysis show fasting changes glucose and insulin only a little, mostly in short studies.

• Circadian Rhythm Fasting: What the Timing Trials Found

  Circadian rhythm fasting: eating earlier may modestly improve fasting insulin, glucose and weight, but trials are short and vary.

• Alternate Day Fasting: How It Works and What Trials Found

  Alternate day fasting alternates fasting and eating days; it lost slightly more weight than other diets only in shorter trials. See who should ask first.

• Early Intermittent Fasting: Does an Earlier Window Help?

  An earlier window improved 24-hour glucose in a small trial. Early intermittent fasting has no one schedule for everyone, so keep a window you can hold.

Frequently asked questions

Will fasting lower my blood pressure?

Possibly a little. In pooled trials, time-restricted eating lowered systolic blood pressure by about 5 mm Hg compared with usual diets, with no change in diastolic pressure. One 5-week trial in 8 men found larger drops, but it was very small.Source 11Source 33

Is time-restricted eating safe if I take blood-pressure medication?

The sources reviewed here do not assess most blood-pressure medicines. According to an NIDDK expert, diuretics and diabetes medicines may need adjusting during fasting, and dehydration can lower blood pressure; plan any fast with your clinician.Source 66

How quickly might blood pressure change?

One small trial saw changes within 5 weeks; the pooled trials lasted a median of 8 weeks. Whether the changes last is uncertain.Source 33Source 11

Does fasting affect cholesterol?

Results are mixed. Eating windows under 8 hours raised total and LDL cholesterol in pooled trials, and no fasting strategy changed HDL cholesterol. In two small early time-restricted eating studies, morning triglycerides (8 men, 5 weeks) or morning cholesterol (11 adults, 4 days) went up.Source 11Source 22Source 33Source 44

Sources

1. 1

   Effects of timing and eating duration of time restricted eating on metabolic outcomes: systematic review and network meta-analysisYu-En Chen et al. BMJ, January 21, 2026.DOI: 10.1136/bmjmed-2024-001071 · PMID: 41586347Systematic review and meta-analysis

2. 2

   Intermittent fasting strategies and their effects on body weight and other cardiometabolic risk factors: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised clinical trialsZhila Semnani-Azad et al. BMJ, June 18, 2025.DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-082007 · PMID: 40533200Systematic review and meta-analysis

3. 3

   Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Insulin Sensitivity, Blood Pressure, and Oxidative Stress Even without Weight Loss in Men with PrediabetesElizabeth F. Sutton et al. Elsevier BV, June 5, 2018.DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.04.010 · PMID: 29754952Human randomized trial

4. 4

   Early Time-Restricted Feeding Improves 24-Hour Glucose Levels and Affects Markers of the Circadian Clock, Aging, and Autophagy in HumansHumaira Jamshed et al. MDPI AG, May 30, 2019.DOI: 10.3390/nu11061234 · PMID: 31151228Human randomized trial

5. 5

   Time-Restricted Eating in Adults With Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled TrialEmily N.C. Manoogian et al. American College of Physicians, November 1, 2024.DOI: 10.7326/M24-0859 · PMID: 39348690Human randomized trial

6. 6

   Fasting Safely with DiabetesMartin M. Grajower. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, August 26, 2020.Official guidance

7. 7

   Calorie restriction and fasting diets: What do we know?National Institute on Aging. National Institute on Aging, August 14, 2018.Official guidance