Can Time Restricted Eating help you with Weight Loss?

Time restricted eating is a form of intermittent fasting that is often followed by people who are looking to lose weight. However, can it really help you lose weight? That's what we will discuss in this article.

Intermittent fasting is one of the most well-liked diet trends right now. Intermittent fasting differs from traditional diets in that it directs you towards eating only at specific times of the day.

You may be able to reduce your daily caloric intake by following the concept of time restricted eating. Possible health benefits include reduced body fat, enhanced cardiovascular function, and stabilized blood sugar levels.

Intermittent fasting can help you reduce your overall caloric intake (Image via Pexels @Yaroslav Shuraev)

What is Time Restricted Eating?

The term "intermittent fasting" is used to describe a variety of different eating schedules. Periods of fasting during each type of intermittent fasting for weight loss are longer than the 8-12 hours typically fasted during sleep.

"Time restricted eating" occurs only during a set window of time each day. If you decide to eat all of your food for the day between the hours of 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., for instance, that would be an example of time restricted eating.

During the remaining 16 hours of each day, the fasting period occurs, during which time no food or drink is consumed. The same routine is followed every day in a time restricted diet.

Research has shown that time restricted diet can help in weight loss but only if you are spending more calories than you are consuming (Image via Pexels @Mikhail Nilov)

Benefits of Following a Time Restricted Diet

People oftentimes eat continuously from the moment they open their eyes until the moment they close them again at night. Changing to a time restricted eating schedule may help you eat less without even trying. There is evidence that eating at specific times of the day can help you consume fewer calories overall.

Why intermittent fasting works for some people may be attributed to the fact that it may subconsciously cause a person to eat lesser calories and reduce their caloric intake.

According to one study, healthy adult men were able to cut their daily calorie intake by about 20% by restricting their eating to a 10-hour window. Another study found that when young men restricted their eating to a 4-hour window each day, they consumed about 650 fewer calories overall.

Other research, however, has shown that time restricted eating does not work for everyone. If you eat foods that are high in calories during your feeding period, you may end up eating as much as you would in a full day.

If your overall caloric intake is same or higher, then intermittent fasting may not result in weight loss (Image via Pexels @Angela Roma)

Also, research on time restricted eating involved keeping a diet diary i.e. an accurate record of the foods eaten by the people in the study. This is not very common in real life, where people generally do not maintain diet diaries.

Hence, researchers are unable to say with any certainty how much time restricted eating affects calorie intake. How much it helps reduce food intake is probably different for everyone.

Health Effects of Time Restricted Eating

Weight loss, improved cardiovascular health, and reduced blood sugar levels are just some of the potential benefits of time restricted eating. Read more about them below.

1) Weight Loss

The success of time restricted eating for weight loss likely hinges on the individual's ability to consume fewer calories during the allotted eating time.

If you are able to reduce your daily calorie intake by following this eating plan, you may see weight loss results. Time-restricted eating may not be the best strategy for weight loss if this is not the case for you.

2) Heart Health

Cholesterol is one of many blood substances that can affect your risk of developing heart disease. The risk of heart disease is heightened by "bad" LDL cholesterol while mitigated by "good" HDL cholesterol.

Both men and women's "bad" LDL cholesterol dropped by over 10% after only four weeks of time-restricted eating within an 8-hour window.

Also, choosing better quality of foods is essential while intermittent fasting, while also keeping an eye on portions (Image via Pexels @Cottonbro studio)

When compared to studies that used a shorter eating window, these later studies did not find a reduction in cholesterol levels.

Both studies recruited healthy adults of normal weight, suggesting that differences in weight loss might explain the contradictory findings.

Participants' cholesterol levels improved as they lost weight through time-restricted eating. It did not get better when they did not lose weight.

3) Blood Sugar

The amount of glucose, or “sugar,” in your blood is a major determinant of your overall health. High blood sugar levels are associated with the development of diabetes and can cause extensive tissue damage. Overall, it's unclear how time-restricted eating affects blood sugar.

Blood sugar levels were found to have decreased by as much as 30% in some studies involving people of normal weight, while levels were found to increase by 20% in another study involving people of normal weight.

Intermittent fasting can also help reduce blood sugar levels, but you should consult your doctor before doing this if you are diabetic (Image via Pexels @Photomix Company)

If time-restricted eating can really lower blood sugar, however, we need to know for sure.

Time-restricted eating is a dietary strategy that prioritizes when you eat over what you eat. It may be possible to eat less food and lose weight by limiting your daily food intake to a shorter period of time.

Furthermore, some research suggests that time-restricted eating may improve heart health and blood sugar levels, though not all studies agree.

Although time-restricted eating is not for everyone, it is a popular dietary option that you might want to try for yourself.