This is a summary of the following Study: Effects of 8-hour time restricted feeding on body weight and metabolic disease risk factors in obese adults: A pilot study
Ever heard of time restricted feeding? It’s a way of eating where you limit the hours in which you consume food. Researchers wanted to find out if this approach could help overweight adults lose weight and improve their health.
They conducted a study with a group of overweight adults. For 12 weeks, these individuals followed a plan where they could eat all their food within an 8-hour window, from 10:00 in the morning until 6:00 in the evening. Outside of those hours, they only drank water and didn’t eat anything. Another group of similar individuals served as a comparison.
The results showed that the people who followed the time restricted feeding plan experienced some weight loss (-2.6% on average) and ate fewer calories each day (-341 calories) compared to the comparison group. Additionally, their systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) decreased by about 7 points. However, there weren’t significant differences in things like body fat, muscle mass, cholesterol levels, or blood sugar compared to the comparison group.
In conclusion, this study suggests that eating within an 8-hour window each day may help overweight individuals lose weight and reduce blood pressure without the need for calorie counting. However, more research is required to fully understand the potential health benefits of this approach.