Abstract
Time-restricted eating (TRE) has rapidly gained interest in the public and the scientific community. One presumed mechanism of action is the adaptation of the eating–fasting rhythm to the evolutionary circadian rhythm of the metabolism. Study results regarding the suggestion that earlier beginning of food intake leads to better outcomes are heterogeneous. We conducted a secondary analysis of pooled data from two pilot studies on TRE to examine an association between the timing of onset of food intake with obesity-related outcomes. Participants (n = 99, 83 females aged 49.9 ± 10.8 years) were asked to restrict their daily eating to 8–9 h for three months. Tertiles of the onset of food intake were assessed for changes in anthropometry, blood lipid levels, and health-related quality of life. We detected no significant differences in outcomes between early (before 9:47), medium (9:47–10:50), and late onset (after 10:50) of food intake. However, the duration of the eating period was longest in the group with the earliest (8.6 ± 1.0 h) and shortest in the group with the latest onset (7.5 ± 0.8 h). Subsequently, fasting duration was longest in the last group (16.5 h). This may have compromised the results. More research is needed in this area to address this question.
Highlights
The same applies to the increase in health-related quality of life (HRQoL), the values differed between +5.8 ± 8.4 points in the first tertile and
Despite a manageable number of Time-restricted eating (TRE) studies in humans, there is some evidence of the effects of daily fasting on body composition [24]
An obvious gender bias has to be considered due to an over-representation of women to men of 8:2. This secondary data analysis did not reveal differences in outcomes between the earlier and delayed onset of eating in TRE, which may have possibly been modulated by the length of the eating phase
Summary
According to the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), the prevalence of obesity in adults in the European Union was 16% in 2020 [2], while the World Health. Fasting is one out of several opportunities to lose weight but should not be mixed up with weight loss diets, e.g., very-low-calorie diets (VLCDs) with an energy intake of up to 600–800 kcal/day, as these are only applied temporarily to lose weight rapidly, while fasting follows a holistic approach [4]. Intermittent fasting has received a lot of attention, with the focus set not exclusively on weight loss and on health promotion and prevention and, above all, on healthy aging [7]. Time-restricted eating (TRE) as a special form of intermittent fasting aims to extend the overnight fasting time by shortening the daily period of food intake. The rationale behind the potential usefulness of TRE is the natural way humans ate tens of thousands of years before the invention of electric light and the 24 h availability of
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