Time-restricted eating is getting a lot of attention right now, and no wonder because instead of restricting what you eat, it’s all about when you eat.
As well as aiding weight loss, it’s thought that this simple eating strategy can also help reduce the risk of type-2 diabetes and fatty liver disease. Research also suggests that it can help treat infectious diseases, such as coronavirus, and can even be a powerful way to prevent dementia, heart disease, and cancer.
Although limiting the hours in which you eat may help you reduce your calorie intake, this isn’t the reason the strategy is so good for you.
Read on to find out everything you need to know about how and why time-restricted eating can work…
Time-restricted eating limits the time window when you can eat
Time-restricted eating is a bit like fasting. However, instead of denying yourself food for long hours, you simply limit the time of day when you eat.
Typically, people following a time-restricted eating pattern will eat between an 8- to 12-hour daytime window and fast during the remaining 12 to 16 hours.
One of the best things about time-restricted eating is that, unlike most diets and fads, it only affects when you eat, not what you eat.
This means that as long as you eat within the prescribed time slot, you can eat as much as you want.
Of course, it is possible to make time-restricted dieting even more successful by eating nutritious, delicious food. This way, you’ll ensure that you’re giving your body plenty of essential antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals to boost the repair pathways during fasting periods.
Whether you opt for a time-restricted diet or not, eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit will optimise your gut microbiome and enhance your mood.
Align your eating window with your work and life
Many of us eat from the time we wake until we go to bed.
Switching from eating when you want, to eating within a time-restricted schedule may cause you to eat less.
Even though it’s not essential to eat less, if there’s less time to eat, you’ll naturally consume fewer calories.
Research has shown that time-restricted eating can reduce the number of calories you eat in a day. One study found that when healthy adult men limited their eating to a 10-hour window, they reduced their calorie intake by about 20%.
Ultimately, time-restricted eating works by aligning your eating and fasting cycles to your body’s innate 24-hour circadian system.
The science bit
The circadian system comprises multiple cellular clocks. These clocks can be found in all cells throughout your body.
These cell-clocks manage the regulation of gene expression that coordinates metabolic programs needed to support your bodily functions.
Approximately 15% of genes display daily oscillations, or fluctuations, in their activity. Many of these genes participate in carbohydrate, lipid, and cholesterol metabolism.
In both animal studies and human trials, time-restricted feeding and eating have elicited beneficial health effects. These include:
- Weight loss
- Improved heart function
- Lower blood sugar
- Reduced fat mass
- Improved brain function
- Enhanced aerobic capacity.
You can achieve this, and more, without changing what you eat or how much you eat.
Give your body time to function better at bedtime
By limiting the portion of the day when you eat, you allow more opportunity for the beneficial effects of fasting to happen, especially overnight.
By stopping eating sooner, your body has longer to process the food you have eaten during the day.
During your overnight fast, your body will shift from producing glucose to ketones, which are produced by the liver from fatty acids. The only way this can happen is when there is an absence of carbohydrate in your body.
This regular switch from glucose to ketones reinforces beneficial circadian rhythms. This reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, as well as having various other positive health benefits.
3 steps to enjoying the health benefits of time-restricted eating
- Start by setting an achievable time slot for eating
Ideally, you want to aim for a short eating window and a long fasting window. To avoid setting yourself up to fail, begin with a 12-hour eating window and once you’re in the swing of things, reduce it.
Start with a 12-hour window and gradually reduce it. For optimum health benefits, aim for a 6- or 8-hour eating window.
For example, for a 10-hour eating window, start with breakfast at 7am, and aim to have finished your last meal by 5pm.
The practicalities of a very shortened eating window can be a struggle to fit in with normal life. If your eating slot remains 10 or 12 hours, don’t sweat it – you will still benefit from the lengthier fasting period.
- Aim for an early finish
The earlier in the day that you can stop eating, the better. Where possible, start with an early breakfast and finish with an early dinner. Studies support that an early start and early finish provides optimum health benefits.
One study found that participants who ate three standard meals in a 6-hour window experienced decreased appetite and increased fat metabolism, compared to when they ate similar three standard meals over a 12-hour window.
- Choose healthy options
While it’s not strictly necessary to change what you eat to benefit from time-restricted eating, it can make a difference to your health, energy, and overall wellbeing.
Eating a diet rich in protein and full of fresh vegetables and fruit will give your body essential antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals to boost the repair pathways during fasting periods.
We know it’s easy to read advice about how to live a healthier lifestyle and then put the idea aside and carry on as normal, but if there’s one thing to take away from this article, it’s that it’s got to be worth a try.
If you or someone you know has seen the health benefits of time-restricted eating, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at contactme@kbafinancial.com or call us on 01942 889883.
Evidence suggests that regular periods of fasting may have health benefits beyond weight-loss, but the science is not yet proven. Intermittent diets are not suitable for people at risk of, or with a history of, eating disorders. Diabetics and those other with a pre-existing medical condition should seek medical advice before going on any form of fasting.
