Latest news with #timeRestrictedEating
Medical News Today
15-05-2025
- Health
- Medical News Today
3 months of time-restricted eating may help sustain weight loss
Over the last few years, the dietary pattern of intermittent fasting has increased in popularity. There has been some debate regarding what time of day to eat during intermittent fasting is best. A new study reports that sustaining long-term weight loss is still possible through time-restricted eating, regardless of what time of day a person's eating window lands. Also known as time-restricted eating, this type of dietary plan helps people lose weight and maintain weight loss by having a person only eat during a certain time period during the day. For example, a person might choose to fast for 12 hours a day and eat for the remaining 12 hours, or fast for 16 hours and eat for the remaining eight hours. There has been some debate regarding what time of day to schedule the intermittent fasting 'eating window' — either early or later in the day — is best. The research is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. For this study, researchers recruited 99 participants from Spain with an average age of 49 who were considered to have overweight or obesity. Study participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups for 12 weeks: Habitual eating window of 12 hours or more Early time-restricted eating (8-hour eating window that starts before 10:00 am) Late time-restricted eating (8-hour eating window that starts after 1:00 pm) Self-selected time-restricted eating (8-hour eating window whenever the participant wanted it) Scientists recorded the body weight and waist and hip circumference of each participant at the start of the study, after 12 weeks, and 12 months after the study's conclusion. After 12 weeks, researchers found that all time-restricted eating groups lost more weight than those in the habitual eating group. 'This finding shows that time-restricted eating can be an effective strategy for short-term weight loss, even without strict calorie counting,' Alba Camacho-Cardenosa, PhD, a post-doctoral researcher at the Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria de Granada ( and the Sport and Health University Research Institute (iMUDS) at the University of Granada in Spain, and lead author of this study, told Medical News Today . 'It suggests that simply limiting the eating window may help people reduce their energy intake naturally and lose weight,' she said. All groups experienced lower hip and waist circumferences after 12 weeks, with the largest decline seen in the early time-restricted eating group. At the 12-month mark after the study's conclusion, Camacho-Cardenosa and her team found that participants in the habitual eating group experienced a weight gain, while all three time-restricted eating groups maintained a weight loss. Those in the habitual eating group also showed an increase in waist circumference after 12 months, while those in all three time-restricted eating groups remained lower. 'The fact that participants were able to maintain weight loss after 12 months shows that time-restricted eating can be a sustainable long-term approach. It means that this strategy does not just help people lose weight, but it can also help them maintain it, which is a major challenge in most weight loss programs.' — Alba Camacho-Cardenosa, PhD 'Sustaining weight loss over time is one of the biggest challenges in obesity management,' she continued. 'Many people lose weight initially but often regain it. Finding new, effective, and pragmatic strategies is crucial to improve long-term health outcomes and reduce the risk of chronic diseases associated with obesity.' 'Our next step is to explore how time-restricted eating combined with exercise affects cardiometabolic health and ectopic fat depots,' Camacho-Cardenosa added. 'We also want to identify which types of people benefit most from specific eating windows to further personalize the approach.' MNT spoke with Mir Ali, MD, a board certified general surgeon, bariatric surgeon, and medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, about this study. Ali said he thought it was a great study that confirmed much of what he has seen in other studies, that there is a benefit to time-restricted eating. '[W]hat the study showed is that the time of day is not as important as the amount of time you stay away from eating.' — Mir Ali, MD 'Unfortunately, obesity is a big problem in this country and most Westernized countries, and it's continuing to rise, and there's a lot of factors contributing to that. There's a lot of tools out there available like different types of diet plans, medications , even surgery. But even with all these tools, it can be still difficult to maintain any weight loss. So any kind of help for that is going to be welcome,' Ali said. For next steps in this research, Ali said it would be helpful if scientists could see which types of diets — such as the Mediterranean or Paleo diets — might be most beneficial with time-restricted eating. 'And further work on what's the minimum time necessary for the time-restricted eating,' he added. 'This one was eight to 12 hours — if we could define that even further it would be helpful.' For readers considering trying intermittent fasting as a way to both lose weight and maintain weight loss, MNT asked Monique Richard, MS, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist and owner of Nutrition-In-Sight, for her top tips. To start, Richard recommended readers consider their own daily schedule to see how eating times and meeting their own nutritional needs are navigated and may be adjusted. 'Map out what a typical day looks like to take inventory — where breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and snacks fit in, and ask if it would work to have those nutritional needs met within an eight-hour window. As well as consider, how will those foods and meals be prepared? What will they consist of? Will that work for me, my family, my current health and needs?' — Monique Richard, MS, RDN, LDN 'Keeping in mind how the body works is also important,' Richard continued. 'We have what is called a migrating motor complex (MMC) — essentially a 'housekeeper' of sorts in the form of waves that take place in four different phases. The MMC assists the gut in 'tidying up' between meals and supports other digestive and systemic processes. Routines and specific mealtimes do seem to help support these systems to work more optimally and efficiently.' Richard also encouraged those considering following time-restricted eating to explore the why, how, what, and when of their eating: Why are you eating? (i.e. hunger, boredom, access…) are you eating? (i.e. hunger, boredom, access…) How are you eating? Are you thoroughly chewing your food? Are you spending time eating your meal (20-40 minutes at a table) or are you gobbling it down in a few large bites in 10 minutes in your car or at your desk? are you eating? Are you thoroughly chewing your food? Are you spending time eating your meal (20-40 minutes at a table) or are you gobbling it down in a few large bites in 10 minutes in your car or at your desk? What are you eating? Are your meals made up of foods that take effort to chew (i.e. vegetables, salads, whole grains, fruit) or are they easily broken down in your mouth (for example: white breads, chips, biscuits and gravy, greasy breaded items)? are you eating? Are your meals made up of foods that take effort to chew (i.e. vegetables, salads, whole grains, fruit) or are they easily broken down in your mouth (for example: white breads, chips, biscuits and gravy, greasy breaded items)? When are you eating? Every two hours? Once a day? In the middle of the night? 'Time can be on our side, or it can work against us,' Richard added. 'When we are intentional with the why, how, what, and when related to our food, aka fuel, we can reap the rewards of our body literally humming along — if you listen closely, you'll hear it!' Nutrition / Diet Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness
Medscape
13-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Eating in Any 8-Hour Window Daily Yields Durable Weight Loss
Restricting eating to an 8-hour window for 3 months improved weight loss in patients with overweight or obesity for at least a year, regardless of the timing of the eating window, according to preliminary results of a randomized controlled trial. The strategy, called time-restricted eating (TRE), limits when — but not what — an individual eats on a daily basis. 'A key point of this study is that the timing of the 8-hour eating window may not be as critical as previously thought, suggesting flexibility in implementation,' Jonatan Ruiz, PhD, of the University of Granada, Granada, Spain, and the Spanish Biomedical Research Centre in Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition in Madrid, Spain, told Medscape Medical News . The study, presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) 2025 in Málaga, Spain, is an extension of an earlier randomized controlled trial that showed benefits of TRE at three different schedules over the short term (12-week follow-up). 'Low-Cost and Sustainable' Ruiz and colleagues conducted the 12-month follow-up in 99 adults with overweight or obesity (50% women; average age, 49 years; average BMI, 32) from Granada. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups for 12 weeks: Habitual eating window of ≥ 12 hours; early TRE (8-hour eating window starting before 10:00 AM); late TRE (8-hour eating window starting after 1 PM); or self-selected TRE (allowing participants to choose their own 8-hour eating window). All groups also took part in a Mediterranean diet education program to encourage healthy eating. Researchers measured body weight and waist and hip circumferences at the start of the trial, after the 12-week intervention, and 12 months after the intervention ended. After the intervention, the habitual eating group experienced an average weight loss of –1.4 kg (–1.5%). All TRE groups achieved significantly greater weight loss: An average of –4.2 kg (–4.5%) in the early TRE group, –3.1 kg (–3.5%) in the late group, and –3.8 kg (–3.9%) in the self-selected group. In addition, the habitual eating group had a lower waist circumference (–1.1 cm) and hip circumference (–1.4 cm) after 12 weeks of intervention. In comparison, the early TRE group experienced significantly greater reductions in waist and hip circumferences (average, –4.1 and –4.6 cm, respectively). The late TRE group also achieved a significant reduction in waist circumference (average, –4.1 cm), but there was no significant reduction in hip circumference (average, –3.2 cm). The self-selected TRE group also achieved reductions in waist and hip circumferences (average, –3.7 and –3.6 cm, respectively), although the reductions were not significant. One possible explanation for the less robust response in the self-selected group, Ruiz said, 'is that allowing participants to choose their own eating window may have led to greater variability in timing, potentially reducing the consistency of the fasting window. This is just a hypothesis we plan to explore further in future studies.' At 12 months after the intervention ended, preliminary results reveal that the habitual eating group had an average body weight increase of 0.4 kg (+0.5%). By contrast, both the early TRE and the late TRE groups maintained significantly greater weight loss (average, –2.1% [−2.2 kg] and –2.0% [−2.0 kg], respectively). The self-selected TRE group also maintained greater body weight loss than the habitual eating group (average, –0.7% [−0.7 kg]), although the change was not statistically significant. Furthermore, the habitual eating group showed an increase in waist circumference of +1.8 cm at 12 months and a slight increase of +0.03 cm in hip circumference. In comparison, both waist and hip circumferences remained significantly lower in the late TRE group (average, –5.6 and –3.4 cm, respectively) than the habitual eating group. And, although not statistically significant, the early TRE group and self-selected TRE group also showed lower values in waist (average, –0.5 and –1.3 cm, respectively) and hip circumferences (average, –1.0 and –1.8 cm, respectively). 'This makes TRE a potentially attractive, low-cost, and sustainable strategy to support weight management — particularly for patients who struggle with strict calorie counting or rigid diet plans,' Ruiz said. 'However, longer and larger trials are needed to confirm these findings across different populations.' The team's next steps include combining TRE with exercise, he noted. 'We are currently finalizing the last measurements, and we are eager to see the outcomes.' Expert Reactions 'One general note of caution on TRE protocols is that altering the opportunities to eat and the potential for meal skipping may compromise the nutritional adequacy of the diet,' Adam Collins, PhD, associate professor of nutrition, University of Surrey, Surrey, England, said in expert commentary in a press release on the presentation. 'This may be an issue for those whose diet was marginally nutritionally replete to start with,' he said. 'To this end, we are midway through a study exploring the impact of TRE specifically on eating behavior and nutritional adequacy of people's diets.' Regarding the finding that the self-selected group didn't manage to keep weight off as successfully, he noted, 'It is possible that following the more regimented early and late TRE created more sustainable changes in eating behavior and dietary habits that remained after the intervention.' Maria Chondronikola, PhD, principal investigator and lead for Human Nutrition, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, commented, 'It is important to note this study did not include a caloric restriction group, and therefore, its results cannot be directly compared with other weight loss strategies that involve intentional caloric restriction.' 'Furthermore, additional information on participant adherence to the prescribed eating windows is crucial,' she said. 'Understanding how well participants adhered to the timing of their meals, the level of their caloric intake, and whether TRE changed any obesity-related metabolic outcomes would provide valuable insight into the true effectiveness of TRE.' Ruiz told Medscape Medical News that 'adherence was high (85%-88%)' and that 'no serious adverse events were reported.' Ruiz and Collins declared no relevant interests. Chondronikola is currently leading an intervention study on the effects of TRE on cardiometabolic health in the United Kingdom and globally.
