Time Restricted Diets Show Promise To Help Weight Loss

Researchers from the University of Alabama have conducted a study that reports for the first time that eating earlier in the day will lessens swings in hunger and changes the 24 hour pattern of fat oxidation and metabolism in human, which may help in attempts at weight loss.

The researchers have been working to investigate whether changing the eating schedule of an individual will help burn fat and lose weight. This is the first study conducted with humans to investigate early day time restricted feeding schedules, it was observed that the strategy of meal timing resulted in decreased hunger swings with altered fat and carbohydrate burning patterns, that may possibly aid weight loss.

In a eTRF program the last meal is eaten by midafternoon, nothing else is to be consumed again until the next morning at breakfast. Eating between 8AM to 2PM leaving an 18 hour fasting period kept appetite levels more even throughout the day as compared to the average eating pattern of 8AM to 8PM, previous eTRF studies have shown that it helps rodents burn more fat, according to Ph.D Courtney Peterson.

Humans have an internal clock, many aspects of metabolism function at optimal levels in the morning. It is suggested that consumption of food in alignment with the body’s circadian clock may have positive influences on health. This eTRF is the first in humans, it is following up on previous studies conducted on rodents to investigate whether this approach will assist humans with weight loss, as it did in the previous rodent eTRF study decreasing body fat and decreasing the risk of chronic diseases.

11 men and women were involved in this study all displaying excess weight, over the period of 4 days the participants ate between the hours of 8AM-2PM, and 4 days at 8AM-8PM. Researchers then evaluated the impacts of eTRF on appetite, fat burned, and calories burned. The participants all tired both eating schedules eating the same calorie content on both schedules, completing all testing under supervision.

Finding say that the eTRF did not affect how many calories were burned, but it did decrease hunger swings and increase the amount of fat that was burnt several hours at night, also improving metabolic flexibility, which is the ability to switch between burning carbs and fats.

More research is needed to be done to show if eTRF will help with long term weight loss or if it will improve other aspects of health as it is still unknown. Due to limitations of the small size of this study a larger more comprehensive study will need to be conducted.