Time-restricted eating improves health

 A new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism offers an alternative — time-restricted eating.
Time-restricted eating allows you to eat the same every day, but you limit the time during which you can have food to a 10-hour window. So, if your first meal is at 8 a.m., your last calories for the day will need to be consumed by 6 p.m. For the next 14 hours, you fast.

The new study is small, following 19 people for three months. At the time of enrollment, all participants met three or more criteria for metabolic syndrome:
    Waist circumference of 102 cm (men) or 88 cm (women)
    Triglycerides of 150 mg/dL or higher (or on drug treatment for elevated triglycerides)
    Reduced HDL-C below 40 mg/dL (men), 50 mg/dL (women) (or on drug treatment for reduced HDL-C)
    Elevated blood pressure, systolic blood pressure of 130 or higher and/or diastolic blood pressure of  85 mmHg or higher  

    (or treatment with an antihypertensive drug with a history of hypertension)
    Elevated fasting glucose of 100 mg/dL or higher (or drug treatment of elevated blood glucose)

Participants logged the timing of their meals and their sleep in the myCircadianClock app. They were encouraged to stay hydrated during their fasting periods.
"We didn't ask them to change what they eat," NPR reported Pam Taub as saying. Taub is a cardiologist at the University of California, San Diego's School of Medicine, and an author of the study. Nonetheless, study participants consumed nearly 9% fewer calories.

In addition to weight loss — a 3% reduction in weight and 4% reduction in abdominal visceral fat — Taub said study participants’ cholesterol levels and blood pressure improved.

"We are surprised that this small change in eating time would give them such a huge benefit," Satchidananda Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and a co-author of the study, told NPR.

"When you go into a fasting state, you start to deplete the glucose stores in your body and you start to use fat as your energy source," Taub said.

Full report
 

Edited by Rogerdodger, 11 December 2019 - 11:02 AM.

Dr. Jason Fung has been advocating this approach for quite some time.  He calls it intermittent fasting which changes the ratio of insulin dependence and insulin resistance of cells.  He has published a number of books (see Amazon) and has an active website and blog.  He claims beneficial effects not only in terms of weight but also disease such as type 2 diabetes.  I know several people who went from insulin dependency to zero or very mild medication within a month with intermittent fasting and have remained stable for years.  

https://idm.health/

Edited by colion, 12 December 2019 - 01:04 AM.

Health benefits could have more to do with avoiding late night snacking rather than than benefits from "fasting".

Either way, it works for me!

When you eat is as important as what you eat.

We often hear that late-night snacking is a bad idea, but now research shows just why this is true. The body's internal clock regulates calorie expenditure very differently at night vs. day. Therefore, as important as what you eat may be when you eat.

A study carried out by the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences put mice on high-fat diets. Half of the mice were allowed to eat ad lib - meaning they had full access to food, 24 hours a day. The other half could only eat during an eight-hour window.

Both of the high-fat groups ate the same amount of calories. But the mice who had eaten high-fat diets round the clock had a number of health problems, including weight gain, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, liver damage, and even motor problems when put to an exercise challenge. The mice who had had restricted access to food weighed 28 percent less than their free-feeding counterparts, and they didn't have the other health problems observed in that group.

This study was also published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The Atlantic
 

Edited by Rogerdodger, 12 December 2019 - 10:34 AM.