No impact of time-restricted eating seen on sex steroids for women with obesity
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Short-term time-restricted eating resulted in no changes in sex steroid levels but was associated with a decrease in dehydroepiandrosterone for premenopausal and postmenopausal women with obesity, according to study data.
“Evidence from two clinical trials suggests that time-restricted eating and the 5:2 diet (fasting 2 days per week) have little effect on key reproductive hormones in young females. However, these findings are limited in that only premenopausal females were assessed,” Faiza Kalam, PhD, postdoctoral research fellow in behavioral and psychosocial aspects of cancer prevention and control in the department of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote. “No study to date has examined how time-restricted eating, or any other form of intermittent fasting, impacts sex hormone levels in postmenopausal females.”
In a secondary analysis of an 8-week study of time-restricted eating, researchers evaluated data from 23 women with obesity. Participants were categorized according to menopause status: premenopausal (n = 12) or postmenopausal (n = 11). Participants were assigned to either a 4-hour time-restricted eating group that ate ad libitum from 3 to 7 p.m. daily while fasting from 7 to 3 p.m. or to a 6-hour time-restricted eating group that ate ad libitum from 1 to 7 p.m. daily while fasting from 7 to 1 p.m. Researchers measured body weight, fat mass, lean mass and visceral fat mass at baseline and collected 12-hour fasting blood samples between 6 and 9 a.m.
Researchers observed a decrease in body weight among premenopausal (–3%) and postmenopausal (–4%) women at 8 weeks (P < .001). There were no changes from baseline in circulating levels of testosterone, androstenedione and sex hormone-binding globulin. However, researchers observed a decrease from baseline in DHEA concentrations among both premenopausal (–14%) and postmenopausal (–13%) women (P < .05), with no differences between the groups.
In addition, postmenopausal women had estradiol, estrone and progesterone measured. These levels remained unchanged after the time-restricted eating intervention.
According to the researchers, these findings suggest no changes in sex steroid levels after 8 weeks of time-restricted eating among premenopausal women with 3% weight loss, and postmenopausal women with 4% weight loss.
“These findings will undoubtedly require confirmation by a well-powered randomized controlled trial that specifically examines the effect of time-restricted eating on the hormonal profile of females of various ages,” the researchers wrote.
Collapse
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts