Time-restricted feeding - thoughts?

Ruatine

A few months ago, I remembered hearing someone discussing research related to only eating 10-12 hours per day (i.e. if you start with eating breakfast at 8am, finishing eating no later than 8pm). I went looking for what scientific backup there might be for this and found a couple papers that were written last year related to a study in mice.
Time-restricted Feeding Is a Preventative and Therapeutic Intervention against Diverse Nutritional Challenges (only one I could find full-text)

Apparently they say the groups of mice in the study were fed the same amounts of food calorie-wise, and results indicated that having a "fasting" period of at least 12 hours improved both weight and fitness of the mice vs. the mice with access to the same food amount to eat all day gaining weight/fat. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Unknown

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lorrpb

Each person is different and you might need to experiment with different eating plans. To find what works best for you. I need to eat a reasonable breakfast within 1 hr of getting up, eat small snacks every 1-2 hours all day, lunch and dinner at normal times, but not huge meals. It keeps my energy in balance and curbs hinder an cravings.

TimothyFish

I hardly think mice are a good thing to compare to humans on this. Without food, they probably spend the whole time running round looking for something to eat, and so they burned more calories.

DeguelloTex

I think if you want to eat that way you should eat that way.

Francl27

I think that naturally people who eat later at night have a later breakfast or don't have it at all. Might be wrong though... but typically I only get hungry after 13-14 hours without food overnight.

Ready2Rock206

Wouldn't work at all for me! I have breakfast on my way to work around 8 am but I don't get back home until around 9pm. I'd never be able to have dinner. If you have a schedule that gives you that kind of time flexibility and it works for you I don't see anything wrong with it, but I don't think it has any weight loss advantages.

marissafit06

It could help if you eat mindlessly in the evening. I can eat more in snacks than in 1-2 meals if I stay up late enough (2-3am).

lemurcat12

DeguelloTex wrote: »

I think if you want to eat that way you should eat that way.

Yep.

I've considered experimenting with it just to see if it seemed to make any difference, but it simply doesn't work with my lifestyle. I eat at 5:30, noon, and 9, usually, with maybe a small late afternoon snack depending on my workout schedule. I could skip breakfast but have no desire to, and I find that I tend to be hungry based on when I'm used to eating. I'm equally ready for breakfast in the morning when I eat dinner early (on rare occasion). In fact, when I do it's usually a Friday or Saturday before a movie or play, and I'm more likely to eat breakfast late on a weekend.

I don't think I'm that driven by hunger in my eating habits. More routine.

Ruatine

It's an interesting study at least. As for applying what happens to mice to humans, that's pretty much what scientists do all the time.

I do generally have at least 10 hours between the last time I eat and my first calorie intake the next morning (usually coffee with creamer). I'd be curious to know if someone who tends to eat midnight snacks switched to this method and found any positive changes from it (all else being equal in terms of calorie intake).

arb037

Its called intermittent fasting.

The_Weaze

I've been doing 16:8 IF this past week and it seems to fit nicely with my lifestyle. I have the illusion of bigger meals since I'm eating all of my calories within the 8 hour window instead of 10-12 hours like I used to which makes me feel more satisfied.

Not for everyone but seems to work for me right now.