Adapted from BMJ 27 April 2024
Time restricted eating has been hailed as having a wide range of benefits including weight loss and weight maintenance.
Popular methods include intermittent fasting, only eating in 8 or 12 hour windows of time, and avoiding food within three hours of bedtime. This is meant to reduce the insulin response to food.
A 12 week study followed 41 women whose average age was 59 years. The mean body mass index was 36. All had obesity and either pre-diabetes or diet controlled diabetes. The idea was to find out if they would lose more weight with time restricted eating (TRE).
The groups were told to either stick to an eating window of ten hours with 8% of calories eaten before 1pm or to eat in a usual eating pattern of 16 hours or more a day with at least half of the daily calories eaten after 5pm.
There was no difference in weight loss -2.3kg v 2.6kg and no change in glycaemic measures.
My comment: It would seem that if TRE makes it easier to stick to your chosen dietary regime then fair enough, but if you prefer to eat at intervals through the day then you won’t be missing out. Total calorie intake seems to make the difference.
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