Obesity Society
The first human test of early time-restricted feeding found that
this meal-timing strategy reduced swings in hunger and altered fat and
carbohydrate burning patterns, which may help with losing weight.
In early time-restricted feeding (eTRF), people eat their last
meal by the mid-afternoon and don't eat again until breakfast the next morning.
The findings were unveiled at The Obesity Society Annual Meeting
at ObesityWeek 2016 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"Eating only during a much smaller window of time than people are typically used to may help with weight loss," said Courtney Peterson, PhD, who led the study at Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
"We found that eating between 8 am and 2 pm followed by an
18-hour daily fast kept appetite levels more even throughout the day, in
comparison to eating between 8 am and 8 pm, which is what the median American
does."
This new research, funded by a TOS Early Career Research Grant
awarded in 2014, suggests that eating a very early dinner, or even skipping
dinner, may have some benefits for losing weight.
The body has a internal clock, and many aspects of metabolism
are at their optimal functioning in the morning. Therefore, eating in alignment
with the body's circadian clock by eating earlier in the day can positively
influence health, and this new study of eTRF shows that this also applies to
metabolism.
This first test of eTRF in humans follows rodent studies of this
approach to weight loss, which previously found that eTRF reduced fat mass and
decreased the risk of chronic diseases in rodents.
To conduct their study, Dr. Peterson and colleagues followed
eleven men and women with excess weight over four days of eating between 8am
and 2pm (eTRF), and four days of eating between 8am and 8pm (average feeding
for Americans).
The researchers then tested the impact of eTRF on calories
burned, fat burned and appetite. To eliminate subjectivity, the researchers had
all participants try both eating schedules, eat the same number of calories
both times, and complete rigorous testing under supervision.
The researchers found that although eTRF did not affect how many
calories participants burned, it reduced daily hunger swings and increased fat
burning during several hours at night. It also improved metabolic flexibility,
which is the body's ability to switch between burning carbs and fats. Whether
eTRF helps with weight loss or improves other aspects of health is still
unknown.
"These preliminary findings suggest for the first time in
humans what we've seen in animal models -- that the timing of eating during the
day does have an impact on our metabolism," said Dale Schoeller, PhD, FTOS
spokesperson for The Obesity Society and Professor Emeritus at the University
of Wisconsin.
"With additional research on early-time restricted feeding
on humans, we can create a more complete picture of whether this innovative
method can best help prevent and treat obesity."
