Yangcheng Evening News reporter Xue Renzheng correspondent Ling Weiming
On April 21, the team of Zhang Huijie, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Nanfang Hospital, Guangdong Southern Medical University, published the title "Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss" in the international authoritative journal "New England Journal of Medicine". A clinical study of time-restricted eating and calorie restriction alone in weight loss.”) research paper.
The results of the study showed that after 12 months of intervention, the time-restricted dieters lost an average of 8.0 kg of body weight compared with baseline, which was similar to conventional energy restriction, and showed that diet was also significantly effective in improving metabolic risk factors such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipid levels.
A 12-month controlled experiment on 139 people
Over the past decade, obesity has become a major public health problem that seriously affects the physical and mental health of Chinese people.
Studies have shown that obesity is mostly caused by excess energy caused by excessive dietary calorie intake and reduced activity.
Time-restricted eating, a popular mode of fasting that restricts eating windows to 8 to 10 hours per day, has gained attention for its simplicity and effectiveness in reducing weight, improving insulin resistance and metabolic disorders.
However, the long-term efficacy of time-restricted diets needs to be further verified, especially the long-term clinical effects of time-restricted diets in weight loss and metabolic improvement compared with energy restriction alone have not been fully evaluated.
In a 12-month intervention clinical study, the team rigorously screened 139 adult obese patients and randomly divided them into a time-restricted diet group and a conventional energy-restricted group.
"There is a saying in Chinese culture that you don't eat after noon, so we chose the time for restricting food to be 8:00-16:00." Zhang Huijie introduced that only non-caloric drinks are allowed outside the 8-hour time-restricted eating period, while regular The energy-restricted group did not restrict any meal times.
Both groups received the same energy restriction and the intervention lasted 12 months.
The research team has a nutritionist to provide dietary guidance for obese patients throughout the process, including providing recipes, food matching selection guidance, etc.
During the experiment, the research team conducted face-to-face follow-up visits to all obese patients 1-2 times a month to measure body weight, assess dietary compliance, help solve difficulties in execution, etc., and 1-2 times a week by telephone or online such as WeChat During follow-up, dietary supervision and guidance were completed, and the time-restricted diet group received supervision and guidance of time-restricted diet at the same time.
"Compared with similar studies, our experiment has more samples and longer intervention time," said Zhang Huijie.
Time-restricted eating is similar to energy restriction
The study found that under the intervention of two dietary patterns, time-restricted diet and conventional energy restriction, the average energy intake of obese patients was significantly lower than that before the intervention. Both dietary patterns were well complied with by patients. above.
After 12 months of intervention, patients in the time-restricted diet group lost an average of 8.0 kg from baseline and those in the conventional energy restriction group lost an average of 6.3 kg, both groups equally effective.
Compared with pre-intervention, obese patients in the time-restricted diet group lost 8.6 centimeters in waist circumference and those in the regular energy restriction group lost 7.2 centimeters.
In addition, 8-hour time-restricted eating had similar effects in improving metabolic risk factors such as blood pressure, blood sugar, and lipid levels compared with regular energy restriction.
Time-restricted eating is safe, effective and easy to operate
Zhang Huijie introduced that during the 12 months of dietary intervention, there were no serious adverse events in obese patients, and only some patients experienced mild fatigue, dizziness, gastrointestinal discomfort, etc., and all of them improved after adjusting their diets.
Zhang Huijie believes that a time-restricted diet such as "no food after noon" can relatively easily achieve the effect of controlling calorie intake. It is difficult to operate and difficult to adhere to. Time-restricted eating and eating one less meal directly will be easier to operate. Our research also shows that time-restricted eating is a safe, effective and alternative way of weight management.”
Zhang Huijie introduced that the research results are the first in the world to clarify that the obesity treatment model of time-restricted dieting is mainly due to energy restriction, which has innovated the traditional understanding of the dieting model in the past, and provided innovative clinical practice for dietary intervention in obese patients. of clinical evidence.