Time-restricted eating helps with weight loss without harming health-related outcomes

Incorporating time-restricted eating (TRE) into a usual care intervention appears to be a viable weight management strategy in adults with overweight or obesity, with a study showing that TRE does not adversely affect sleep, mood, or quality of life.

Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of a parallel-group randomized clinical trial involving 197 adults aged 30–60 years with overweight or obesity (mean age 46.1 years, 49.7 percent female, mean BMI 32.8 kg/m²). These participants had been randomly allocated to the usual care (UC) group or the TRE group.

Participants in the UC group (n=49) maintained their usual eating window (≥12 hours daily) and underwent an educational program based on the Mediterranean diet. Those in the TRE group were further divided into three groups, according to the eating window timing: early (an 8-hour eating window starting before 10 am; n=49), late (an 8-hour eating window starting after 1 pm; n=52), and self-selected (an 8-hour eating window of the participants’ own choosing; n=47). All participants in the TRE groups also received the UC educational program. The interventions lasted 12 weeks.

Outcomes such as changes in sleep, mood dimensions (ie, depression, anxiety, and stress), and quality of life were assessed before and after the 12-week intervention. Sleep was assessed using accelerometery, while the other two outcomes were evaluated using self-administered questionnaires.

Compared with the UC group, the early TRE group showed no significant differences in sleep (mean difference in total sleep time, 0.2 hours), mood (mean difference in Beck Depression Inventory Fast Screen score, 0.2 points; mean difference in state anxiety score on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, –1.2 points; mean difference in Perceived Stress Scale score, 2.1 points), and quality of life (mean difference in general health score on the Rand 36-Item Short Form Health Survey, 3.3 points).

Likewise, the changes in all outcomes did not significantly differ between the late TRE and self-selected TRE groups vs the UC group, as well as between the TRE groups.