Restricting your eating between 7am and 3pm can help you lose weight and lower your blood pressure, international researchers have found.
The randomized clinical trial of 90 obese adults in the United States found that people who ate only during the restricted period lost about 2.3 kg more weight, compared to those who ate over 12 hours or more.
They also lowered blood pressure over a 14-week period.
“The eTRE (early time-restricted feeding) intervention may therefore be an effective treatment for both obesity and hypertension,” the authors said.
“It also improves mood by decreasing fatigue and feelings of depression-down and increasing vigor, and those who can stick with eTRE lose more body fat and trunk fat.
“However, eTRE did not affect most fasting cardiometabolic risk factors in the main intention-to-treat analysis.”
Camera icon The research found that people who only ate during the restricted period lost about 2.3kg more weight, compared to those who ate over 12 hours or more. istock Credit: istock
The trial took place between August 2018 and April 2020.
Participants were obese adults between the ages of 25 and 75 who received weight loss treatment through the Weight Loss Medicine Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.
“Our data suggest that eTRE is feasible, as participants adhered on average six days per week and most participants adhered at least five days per week,” the authors said.
“Despite the challenges of navigating evening social activities and work schedules, adherence to eTRE was similar to other TRE interventions…and satisfaction was similar between groups.
“Furthermore, we found that eTRE was acceptable to many patients. About 41 percent of participants in the eTRE+ER group planned to continue practicing eTRE after the conclusion of the study.”
Camera icon Participants were adults aged 25 to 75 with obesity. Credit: Provided
However, the authors said larger trials were needed to confirm whether it was better for fat loss specifically.
“Future clinical trials will need to enroll much larger sample sizes (up to approximately 300 participants) to determine whether IF (intermittent fasting) affects body composition and cardiometabolic health,” the authors said.
“Future studies should investigate whether the timing and length of the meal window affect these outcomes, as well as determine who can adhere to eTRE versus who cannot and would benefit from other mealtime interventions.
“The eTRE intervention should be further tested as a low-cost and easy-to-implement approach to improving health and treating disease.”
The authors also noted that there were some limitations with their study.
“Our study has some limitations, including being of modest duration, enrolling mostly women, and not reaching our intended sample size, in part because of the Covid-19 pandemic,” they said.
“Also, we measured physical activity by self-report, not by accelerometry, which may have limited our ability to detect differences in physical activity between groups.
“Finally, we measured cardiometabolic endpoints only in the fasting state. Future research should investigate glycemic endpoints in the postprandial state or over a 24-hour period.”