The so-called intermittent fasting diet has been gaining more and more traction among people who want to lose weight quickly.

This popular diet consists of "fast" days, where one drastically restricts their calorie intake — to a quarter of the daily dose or less, for instance — and "feast" days, where the person dieting can eat whatever they please.

Sometimes referred to as a dieting "fad," intermittent fasting has become popular in recent years, due to its suggested benefits of increasing lifespan and staving off cancer.

Indeed, some animal studies have indicated that intermittent fasting may lower the risk of cancer, while observational studies have shown that people whose religion has them fasting regularly live longer than seniors who do not fast.

But could there also be downsides to intermittent fasting? Research presented at the European Society of Endocrinology annual meeting — which took place in Barcelona, Spain — suggests that the dieting practice may have serious consequences for a person's metabolism.

Specifically, the new study — led by Ana Cláudia Munhoz Bonassa, a researcher at the University of São Paulo in Brazil — suggests that intermittent fasting may impair the normal activity of the pancreas and the production of insulin, which may, in turn, raise the risk of type 2 diabetes.

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