Condensing a calorie-restricted diet into an 8-hour window during the day didn’t do much to bolster weight loss, a randomized trial found.
Participants with obesity who followed a time-restricted diet in addition to calorie restriction didn’t lose a significantly greater amount of weight compared with individuals who adhered to a calorie-restricted diet alone (-1.8 kg difference, 95% CI -4.0 to 0.4 kg, P=0.11), according to Huijie Zhang, MD, PhD, of Southern Medical University in China, and colleagues, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine.
During the 12-month study, both groups lost a significant amount of weight from baseline:
-> Time/calorie-restricted diet: -8.0 kg (95% CI -9.6 to -6.4 kg)
-> Calorie-restricted diet alone: -6.3 kg (95% CI -7.8 to -4.7 kg)
“These results indicate that caloric intake restriction explained most of the beneficial effects seen with the time-restricted-eating regimen,” the group explained. “Even so, our findings suggest that the time-restricted-eating regimen worked as an alternative option for weight management.”
