Less calorie intake equally effective with time-restricted fasting: study
Chinese scientists offered new advice to those seeking to loose weight: You do not have to spare your supper, just reduce your daily calorie intake.
The study published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that among patients with obesity, a regimen of time-restricted eating was not more beneficial in bodyweight reduction than daily calorie restriction.
Now, time-restricted eating like intermittent fasting is one of the popular approaches for weight loss, but its long-term efficacy is still not clear.
Researchers from Southern Medical University in Guangzhou randomly assigned 139 patients with obesity to time-restricted eating – eating only between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm – with calorie restriction or daily calorie restriction alone.
For 12 months, the participants were instructed to follow a calorie-restricted diet that consisted of 1,500 to 1,800 kcal per day for men and 1,200 to 1,500 kcal per day for women, according to the study.
Among the 118 participants who completed the 12-month follow-up visit, the mean weight loss from baseline at 12 months was minus 8.0 kg in the time-restriction group and minus 6.3 kg in the daily-calorie-restriction group.
The researchers said that less than two kilograms were considered not significantly different in the two groups, and there were no substantial differences between the groups in the number of adverse events.
Results of analyses of waist circumferences, BMI, body fat, body lean mass, blood pressure, and metabolic risk factors were also consistent with the findings, according to the study.
The findings made it clear that the weight loss effect of time-restricted eating is mainly attributed to calorie reduction instead of the food-intake schedule.