Why eating within limited hours may help with weight loss

A new study compared how much weight people lost on time-restricted versus regular meal schedules.

A number of studies have suggested that eating only during a limited window of time can help some people lose weight. But it's unclear why: Does the strategy just help people eat less, or is there something beneficial about keeping meals within a shorter time frame?

New research falls in the former camp, suggesting that the amount of calories people consume matters more than the timing. 

A small, randomized trial at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine — the results of which were published Friday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine — found that when researchers controlled the number of calories people consumed, both time-restricted and regular eating schedules resulted in similar degrees of weight loss. 

“It makes us think that people who benefit from time-restricted eating — meaning they lose weight — it’s probably from them eating fewer calories because their time window’s shorter and not something else,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Nisa Maruthur, an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University.

Time-restricted eating regimens vary, and some are similar to intermittent fasting, a type of diet that involves alternating between periods of fasting and eating. The new trial looked at a 10-hour eating window, which is longer than what would typically qualify as intermittent fasting.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/why-eating-time-restricted-helps-weight-loss-rcna148041

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