Time-restricted eating shows promise for those managing metabolic syndrome

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-10-01 07:00

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People with metabolic syndrome on time-restricted eating diets may lose more weight and see modest improvements in blood sugar control compared to just receiving nutritional counselling, according to international researchers. The team recruited 108 adults with metabolic syndrome - a group of conditions including high blood pressure, high blood sugar and excess body fat that increases the risk of diabetes, stroke and heart disease - and split them in two groups. One group received a standard series of lifestyle and nutritional recommendations, while the second group was given the same recommendations along with a personalised eight to ten hour eating window they were asked to abide by. After three months, the researchers say those on the time-restricted eating diet had lost more weight and a higher proportion of weight they lost was fat rather than muscle. The researchers say the time-restricted eating group also showed a slightly better improvement in blood sugar control and hemoglobin A1c levels (used to measure diabetes). While this study did not compare time-restricted eating to any other diets, the researchers say their findings suggest time-restricted diets may help improve the health of people with metabolic syndrome.

Media release

From: American College of Physicians

Time-restricted eating associated with greater blood sugar control and fat loss than standard nutrition counseling

A randomized control trial of adults with metabolic syndrome evaluated the effect of time-restricted eating (TRE) on glucose control, fat mass, and weight loss. The data revealed that TRE led to greater modest improvement in glucose control and decreases in weight and fat mass when coupled with standard nutritional counseling than standard nutritional counseling alone. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health studied data from 108 adult participants with metabolic syndrome (MetS), elevated BMI, and elevated HbA1c or fasting glucose characteristic of prediabetes. They aimed to assess the efficacy of personalized TRE in participants on top of standard nutritional counseling to determine the effects of TRE as a lifestyle intervention. Researchers randomly assigned participants into two groups that had different interventions; in the first group, participants were given standardized lifestyle and nutritional recommendations and advised to continue their eating patterns. The second group was given the same nutritional recommendations, but they were also assigned to a personalized 8 to 10 hour eating window. Researchers remotely monitored the intervention for three months, during which the participants logged the timing of dietary intake in the myCircadianClock (mCC) app every day. The primary outcome was changes in fasting glucose, while secondary outcomes included changes in HbA1c and cardiometabolic parameters. Results found that, compared to the group receiving standard nutritional guidance, the TRE group not only had a greater decrease of weight, but a higher proportion of the weight lost was from fat—suggesting TRE likely poses a lower risk for deterioration of muscle associated with weight loss. Further, while the changes were modest, the TRE group observed greater improvement in blood sugar control and hemoglobin A1c levels. Ultimately, the data indicates that TRE is an effective practical lifestyle intervention with benefits for glycemic regulation and cardiometabolic health. The study contributes to the library of existing research on TRE and metabolic syndromes. In addition, its methodological innovation in using the mCC app enables future studies to be remote and at a larger scale.

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Journal/
conference: Annals of Internal Medicine

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The Salk Institute for Biological Studies, USA

Funder: The study was funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 DK118278 (principal investigator [PI], Dr. Taub). Dr.Manoogian was supported by the Larry L. Hillblom Postdoctoral Fellowship and Drs.Manoogian andWilkinson were also supported by a Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Network Grant. Dr.Wilkinson was supported by a KL2 career development award from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) (partial support via NIH KL2TR001444). This research was partially supported by the UCSD ACTRI. The ACTRI is funded by awards issued by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH UL1TR001442. The research conducted in Dr. Panda’s laboratory was partially supported by NIH grants R01CA258221 (PI, Dr. Panda) and Salk Institute Cancer Center grant NIH P30CA014195. The myCircadianClock app was partially supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant 76014 (PI, Dr. Panda).

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