Trying to lose weight? Instead of checking your calories, try checking something else instead–the clock.
A new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism reports that mice whose food intake was restricted to 8 to 12 hours per day instead of having food available all day long reversed their risk of obesity–despite no changes in their caloric intake.
Better yet, it reversed something else: Type 2 diabetes.
“We found that animals fed within a window of 8 to 12 hours had a number of protective and therapeutic health benefits compared with animals allowed to eat the same number of calories from the same food source at any time,” says Dr. Satchidananda Panda, a researcher from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. “The effect of eating time to nudge the gut microbiome and host physiology towards health or disease without altering genes, nutrients, calories, or drugs opens new research avenues and cost-effective health-care strategies.”
Using mice in a laboratory setting, Panda gave mice access to food only during a 12 hour window, forcing them to spend 12 hours in a fasted state. Other mice in the study were also allowed unrestricted access to food to see how they paired up–and something interesting happened. Despite few changes in their caloric intake, the mice whose food was restricted gained less weight.
Then researchers took the mice on the unrestricted eating schedule and switched them to a 9 hour eating window, and again the same results occurred, regardless of how much calories they consumed. Despite changes in fat and sugar, they gained less weight–which researchers credit to changes in gut bacteria.
“For biologists, this offers a novel paradigm to understand the etiology of metabolic diseases and undesirable gut microbiomes in modern lifestyles marked with erratic eating patterns,” says Panda. “It’s an interesting observation that although the mice on a normal diet did not lose weight, they changed their body composition. 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?”
Regardless of the reasons why it occurred, at least researchers are assured of one thing: Restricting when you eat could make you leaner regardless of how many calories you’re consuming.
That’s music to anyone’s ears.
“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 research author Amandine Chaix.
What This Means For You
Losing weight isn’t easy–or is it? As it turns out, restricting your feeding window to 8 to 12 hours a day could give you the body you’ve always wanted, calorie counting need not apply.
Readers: Have you tried intermittent fasting before? Why or why not?
Sources:
Intermittent Fasting Even With the Occasional Cheat Day May Help Combat Obesity – EurekAlert.org
Eat Within 12-Hour Window to Lose Weight, Say Scientists – Telegraph.co.uk
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