Ah! Thank you. So the short version is:
My personal experience with IF suggests that there are pretty major benefits from doing it regularly. I lost 30 pounds (and I had no idea I needed to lose them - but I definitely look and feel much better!), my general levels of inflammation dropped, my energy stabilized, and my various biomarkers went from good to excellent. And I'm no longer trapped by a regular need for food; if it takes an extra three hours or so to get to a meal...
An article about the pitfalls of using mice for animal research leads off with the example of calorie restriction. The controls for calorie restriction mice experiments were obese mice, suggesting that the health benefits of calorie restriction might be conflated with the health benefits of not being obese. I get the impression that people who study calorie restriction still think it worthwhile for life extension, but it's useful to try and integrate all evidence you come across.
[edit] timtyler suggests this is a well-understood effect that's already been taken into account by CR scientists.