Fasting For 12 Hours Per Day

Thoughts? Anyone Doing This Already?

“Simply sticking to a 12-hour eating window could be the key to losing weight without restricting calories

Dieters hoping to shed the pounds should watch the clock as much as their calories after scientists discovered that limiting the hours we eat stops weight gain.

Confining meals to a 12 hour window, such as 8am to 8pm, and fasting for the remaining day, appears to make a huge difference to whether fat is stored, or burned up by the body.

Researchers at The Salk Institute in the US, said it adds more evidence to studies which show that eating late at night causes weight gain.

They suggest restricting eating hours could help fight high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.

"These days, most of the advice is, 'You have to change nutrition, you have to eat a healthy diet,'" said associate professor Satchidananda Panda

"But many people don't have access to healthy diets. So the question is, without access to a healthy diet, can they still practice time-restricted feeding and reap some benefit?
The researchers studied 400 mice, ranging from normal to obese who were placed on various types of diets and lengths of time restrictions.

They showed that mice which were fed a high-fat diet, but allowed access to food for only 12 hours per day, were healthier and slimmer than mice given access to the same food for the whole day, even though the two groups consumed the same number of calories.

The results were the same even if the diets were high fat, high sugar, or high fruit sugars.

The study also suggests that the odd blip is unlikely to make a difference. A late night weekend takeaway, for example, is unlikely to harm the body's metabolism. However regularly eating at night would have a big impact.

"The fact that it worked no matter what the diet, and the fact that it worked over the weekend and weekdays, was a very nice surprise," says the study's first author Amandine Chaix, a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Panda's lab.

Mice who had become obese by eating whenever they liked during the day, lost five per cent of their bodyweight, when put on restricted within just a few days. At the end 38 week study, they were 25 per cent lighter than the group who had continued to eat freely.

Although mice on a healthy diet did not lose more weight, they gained muscle mass, the study which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism showed.

"It's an interesting observation that although the mice on a normal diet did not lose weight, they changed their body composition," added Prof Panda.

"That brings up the question--what happens? Are these mice maintaining their muscle mass which might have been lost with free feeding, or are they gaining muscle mass?"

A second study found that sticking to a Mediterranean diet can protect the DNA from ageing.

Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in the US found that a diet high in olive oil, fresh fruit and vegetables and nuts, was associated with longer telomeres.

Telomeres are the protective caps which sit at the end of chromosomes and prevent damage to the DNA, much like the plastic caps on the end of shoelaces.

Previous studies have shown that short telomeres are associated with disease and advanced ageing.

"To our knowledge this is the largest population-based study specifically addressing the association between Mediterranean diet adherence and telomere length in healthy, middle-aged women," explained Immaculata De Vivo, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at BWH and Harvard School of Public Health and senior author of this study.

"Our results further support the benefits of adherence to this diet to promote health and longevity."

Dr Mike Knapton, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This large study adds to the body of evidence that longer telomeres are found in those who eat a Mediterranean diet.

“Longer telomeres may partially explain the link between diet and risk of cardiovascular disease.

“Previous findings from the same study had shown that those with unhealthy lifestyles had shorter telomeres.

“These results reinforce our advice that eating a balanced and healthy diet can reduce your risk of developing heart disease.”

The study was published in the British Medical Journal.”

Replies

  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,120 Member
    Well, yeah, I think a lot of people probably do. I eat at about 7 pm, then don't eat until about noon or later usually, the next day. Even if you ate supper at 6 pm then ate breakfast at 6 am, that's not uncommon.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    The first line is the problem.
    Simply sticking to a 12-hour eating window could be the key to losing weight without restricting calories

    At the very least, it's missing context that can lead to misinterpretation. At the worst, it's flat out wrong.


    To manage your weight, your calorie intake needs to be appropraite - too much and you'll gain, too little and you'll lose. Whether or not you need to count calories varies with the person... but ultimately it's about intake, not about timing.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    The first line is the problem.
    Simply sticking to a 12-hour eating window could be the key to losing weight without restricting calories

    At the very least, it's missing context that can lead to misinterpretation. At the worst, it's flat out wrong.


    To manage your weight, your calorie intake needs to be appropraite - too much and you'll gain, too little and you'll lose. Whether or not you need to count calories varies with the person... but ultimately it's about intake, not about timing.

    To be clear...

    Timing can be a tool to help manage overall intake, but overall intake is the determining factor, not the timing.
  • Azercord
    Azercord Posts: 573 Member
    Intermittent fasting is just meal timing, you can use it for weight loss/gain or maintenance. How much you eat in your window determines weight loss/gain/maintenance not some magic of IF. Also 12/12 split is a good way to test the waters of IF but I would generally recommend moving up to a shorter eating window if you find you like it.
  • mtoyia
    mtoyia Posts: 9 Member
    My hubby frequently does fasting, for days at a time. The longest he has gone was 7 days. He lost 8lbs and said he felt the best he ever felt.

    Wow!!! 7 days amazing!
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,937 Member
    You've posted this twice in 2 different sections. That is against the terms of service for MFP.
  • tar2323
    tar2323 Posts: 141 Member
    I don't eat my first meal until 6pm, then usually finish by 8pm. That is simply restricting calories through timing so that I can enjoy a bigger, more satisfying evening meal and snacks later. Works for me.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    tar2323 wrote: »
    I don't eat my first meal until 6pm, then usually finish by 8pm. That is simply restricting calories through timing so that I can enjoy a bigger, more satisfying evening meal and snacks later. Works for me.

    I'm not trying to argue with you over semantics, but I do think it's important to be clear to others who may be reading this...

    Timing doesn't inherently restrict calories. It may be a side effect of timing, but it's not a necessary result (think cause and effect). It seems to be for you, so that's great, but plenty of people can put away way far too many cals in 2 hours.
  • mph323
    mph323 Posts: 3,565 Member
    I think a 12 hour window can be useful if a person tends to snack throughout the evening and that causes them to go over their calorie target. I think it's too common, though, for people to eat 2 or 3 meals within that timeframe for most people to think of it as an IF protocol. I think of it as more along the lines of "not eating after dinner".
  • cat_lady77
    cat_lady77 Posts: 203 Member
    Search for "intermittent fasting" it's kind of the same idea, but more extreme (longer fasting period). I do it occasionally & it does help, but you still have to track your calories & not overeat.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,879 Member
    edited February 2018
    Posted in two different threads...

    But anyway, I'd think a 12 hour fast is pretty common and it's certainly not going to default to losing weight. A 12 hour fast is basically called going to bed...

    I eat dinner around 8:30...go to bed around 9:30/10...up at 5:45 and eat my breakfast at 8:30/9 in the morning at work.

    The only way to lose weight is by restricting calories. Such nonsense...
  • tar2323
    tar2323 Posts: 141 Member
    jjpptt2 wrote: »
    tar2323 wrote: »
    I don't eat my first meal until 6pm, then usually finish by 8pm. That is simply restricting calories through timing so that I can enjoy a bigger, more satisfying evening meal and snacks later. Works for me.

    I'm not trying to argue with you over semantics, but I do think it's important to be clear to others who may be reading this...

    Timing doesn't inherently restrict calories. It may be a side effect of timing, but it's not a necessary result (think cause and effect). It seems to be for you, so that's great, but plenty of people can put away way far too many cals in 2 hours.

    Okay, sure - I hear what you're saying. I can certainly put away plenty of calories in two hours that's for certain, so I'll rephrase to say this timing method works for me.