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Time-restricted eating also decreased blood pressure in light of 63 percent of the patients actively taking anti-hypertensive medication. The 12 patients who had elevated fasting blood glucose levels at baseline had a significant 3. A statistical analysis found an absence of a significant correlation between changes in weight and the metabolic parameters measured, which could indicate that the metabolic improvements may not entirely be driven by weight reduction but by other mechanisms of time-restricted eating.

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A larger study of participants with obesity, between the ages of 18 to 64 years, found that a delayed 8-hour time-restricted eating window and hour fasting window had minimal effects on body weight; a sub-analysis that included 46 of the participants found that the metabolic parameters including fasting glucose, fasting insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, HbA1C, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein levels and high-density lipoprotein levels were unchanged with time-restricted eating.

The participants were randomized to follow a 8-hour eating period 12 p. The control group followed a consistent eating pattern of 3 meals per day with snacks permitted. Compared to pre intervention the control group lost approximately 1. No statistically significant difference in body weight between groups was observed. The self-reported adherence to the diet of the control group was Additionally, there was no monitoring of diet, recommendations for calorie and macronutrient intake or physical activity. A subgroup of 46 participants, 24 individuals who followed the control regime and 22 who followed the time-restricted eating regime, completed in-person metabolic testing.

There were no significant differences between the groups in fasting glucose, fasting insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, HbA1C, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein levels and high-density lipoprotein levels.

Further, there was no observed change in fat mass in either group, but the researchers attributed the decrease in body weight to an observed reduction in lean mass only in the individuals who followed the time-restricted eating regime. The researchers reported that the loss of lean mass far exceeds the normal 20 to 30 percent typically observed with weight loss.

Since a daily food log was not recorded, it is possible that the individuals who followed the time-restricted eating regime were consuming inadequate amounts of protein and therefore lost muscle mass.

Time-restricted eating: efficacy versus effectiveness

In fact, a separate study found that when calorie and protein intake during time-restricted eating was matched to baseline intake, no reductions in lean mass was observed. It is possible that the negligible effects seen with time-restricted eating were due to a lack of adherence to the hour fasting window.

Recent animal studies have revealed that time-restricted eating can improve metabolic health. Mice that were fed a variety of obesogenic diets while following an 8- to hour time-restricted weekday eating regimen experienced an attenuation of metabolic syndrome through improvements in glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, protection against hypercholesterolemia, and reductions in whole-body fat accumulation. These effects were maintained even when the time-restricted feeding was temporarily disrupted by unrestricted eating on the weekends.

In addition to the metabolic improvements observed in obese and overweight individuals, time-restricted eating has demonstrated beneficial effects in healthy adults. In conjunction with resistance training, an 8-hour time-restricted eating window in healthy males resulted in a decrease in blood glucose, blood insulin, and fat mass, while maintaining muscle mass. Rather, they experienced muscle hypertrophy and performance similar to women in a control diet group who ate all their food within a hour per day period.

Notably, the two groups' dietary intake were similar in energy and protein content. Time-restricted feeding also appears to enhance the aerobic capacity of mice. Mice that ate during a 9-hour time-restricted feeding window ran approximately one hour longer than mice of similar weight that had unrestricted access to food.

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There is some animal evidence that time-restricted feeding also elicits long term health benefits, as evidenced by increased lifespan. Mice that were fed one meal per day lived approximately 11 to 14 percent longer when fed the same caloric content as mice that ate freely, suggesting that time-restricted feeding not only improves metabolic health but may be a contributor to longevity even in the absence of caloric restriction.

As described above, nutrients such as glucose, amino acids, and fatty acids possess zeitgeber capacity and can activate peripheral clocks such as those in the liver. Since time-restricted eating has a circadian component to it, and caffeine disrupts circadian rhythms through its stimulating effects, some argue that it could affect peripheral clocks. For example, caffeine consumption at night induced a minute shift in the body's internal clock, about half the shift that occurred after three hours of night-time bright light exposure.

However, some time-restricted eating studies demonstrating health benefits have included black coffee in their protocols. For example, when women who were in remission for breast cancer practiced a time-restricted eating protocol that included an hour window of eating and a hour period of fasting in which black coffee consumption was permitted, the women experienced a 36 percent reduction in breast cancer recurrence.

Notably, they also had an 18 percent reduction in caloric intake, a potential confounder for their findings. The circadian system in most cells relies primarily on two feedback loops in which the translation of core clock genes is regulated by their own protein products.

Time-restricted eating

These interlocking feedback loops generate rhythmic transcription cycles to control sleep-wake and eating-fasting cycles by driving the expression of thousands of target genes. Many of these genes that follow rhythmic patterns are involved in metabolism and can directly interact with the core clock genes to coordinate metabolic programs.

Intermittent Fasting vs Time Restricted Feeding - Health Benefits

Further linking the circadian clock and metabolism, animal studies, clinical studies, and observational studies have demonstrated that frequent disruptions in light-dark and eating-fasting cycles can lead to circadian dysregulation and metabolic dysfunction.

Mice whose core clock genes have been knocked out develop metabolic syndrome and become obese, indicating a link between circadian regulation and metabolism. Furthermore, shift workers and healthy people who intentionally disrupt their circadian rhythms exhibit signs of metabolic dysfunction and higher incidence of several chronic diseases, including cancer. Disruptions in the body's innate hour clocks due to irregular light-dark cycles and unrestricted eating have been implicated in the pathogenesis of several metabolic and neurological diseases, as well as cancer.

Time-restricted eating, however, is emerging as a potential strategy for avoiding major dietary changes while improving overall metabolic health. Further research likely will elucidate many of the mechanisms that elicit these beneficial effects while also uncovering the therapeutic potential of time-restricted eating to prevent or improve the prognosis of age-related diseases. Submitted 6 months by ArjanvaGroningen.

Submitted 12 months by rhonda. Submitted almost 2 years by rhonda. Rhonda Patrick and Mike Maser. A fasting-mimicking diet improved effectiveness and reduced toxicity of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. Be the first one! Exercise mitigates muscle mass losses during severe energy deficit by inhibiting the induction of autophagy.

Time-restricted eating, a ketogenic diet, and exercise improved cognitive function and markers of metabolism in a woman with ApoE4 and Alzheimer's. A clinical trial found a fasting-mimicking diet decreased biomarkers of inflammation in humans. In mice, it reversed pathologies linked to Crohn's.

Intermittent fasting: Surprising update - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health Publishing

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