Can Intermittent Fasting Induce Weight Loss and Improve Gut Health as Compared to Standard Medical Care in Patients With Obesity/High BMI and Crohn's Disease.

Diet is a determinant of gut microbial diversity and composition and is recognized as a potential environmental trigger for IBD; for example, high-fat diets are associated with increased risk of CD in pre-clinical models, with effects mediated through dysbiosis and altered gut permeability. Diet is also a potential non-pharmacological therapy for weight loss and for reducing the occurrence of disease flares and the reliance on dose escalation of biologic agents. Indeed, there is accumulating evidence for the role of diet in the treatment of CD, and diet-induced improvement of microbial dysbiosis is associated with induction of remission in pediatric patients with active CD. Intermittent Fasting (IF) is a dietary intervention that involves periodic intervals of no or very limited energy intake. We want to determine the efficacy and feasibility of a 12-week IF(Intermittent Fasting) intervention to induce weight loss (by 1 BMI unit reduction), decrease biomarker inflammation and increase microbial functional diversity compared to standard medical management (SM) in a pilot study of individuals with overweight or obesity and CD in clinical remission with elevated biomarkers of inflammation, indicated by fecal calprotectin (FCP) \> 250 µg/g or C-reactive protein (CRP) \> 5 mg/L).