Current research: effect of time restricted eating on weight and cardiometabolic health

Intermittent fasting has grown in popularity as a weight loss strategy in recent years. In particular, time restricted eating (TRE) has been popularized in the diet industry with dozens of books touting its ability to promote weight loss and improve glucose regulation. TRE involves confining the eating window to a specified number of hours per day (usually 4-10 h), and fasting (with zero-calorie beverages) for the remaining hours of the day. While several studies of TRE have been performed in rodent models, human studies are only now emerging. The goal of this review is to summarize the effects of TRE on body weight and cardiometabolic disease risk factors in human subjects. Accumulating evidence shows that TRE may spontaneously decrease energy intake by 20-30% under ad libitum conditions, producing small but statistically significant weight loss of 1-4%. In addition, TRE may significantly decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressure independent of weight loss. Further, improvements in fasting insulin and insulin resistance have also been reported. Taken together, these preliminary data suggest that TRE produces mild weight loss, and also may improve some aspects of cardiometabolic health by lowering blood pressure and insulin resistance.