How does time restricted eating compare to a healthy diet? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Is there any benefit at all to time restricted eating, or TRE, for losing weight when compared to a usual eating pattern? That’s the question addressed in a recent Johns Hopkins study headed by Nisa Maruthur, a primary care expert, and colleagues.

Maruthur: We were looking at a weight change in both arms expecting the TRE arm to look more beneficial if TRE is beneficial for weight loss and basically there was no difference at 12 weeks. Both groups lost some weight which is why you’ve got to have a control group. They probably were eating fewer calories, less sodium, things like that because we were providing a healthy diet. Regardless of what they were eating at baseline we didn't see any effects of the TRE, the time restricted eating compared to the usual eating pattern on glucose measures either which were our secondary outcomes.  :28

Maruthur says the study provided participants with food, support and counseling to enable them to adhere to a healthy diet. Much more fiber comprised the diet in comparison to what participants were accustomed to eating, which may account for why everyone lost weight over the 12 week period. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.