Time-restricted eating offers significant weight loss for patients with type 2 diabetes

Key takeaways:

• Compared with calorie restriction, time-restricted eating offered greater body fat loss and weight loss for those with type 2 diabetes.
• The time-restricted eating group lost 3.55% of their body weight.

BOSTON — For adults with type 2 diabetes, time-restricted eating was associated with greater weight loss and body fat loss than calorie-restricted eating, according to research presented at NUTRITION.

Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a type of intermittent fasting in which a patient eats for only an 8-hour period each day and fasts with zero-calorie beverages for 16 hours, Vasiliki Pavlou, RD, MS, a PhD student at the University of Illinois Chicago, and colleagues reported.

Previous research has indicated that 8-hour TRE is beneficial for patients with prediabetes when it comes to weight loss and glycemic control, they wrote. However, not much is yet known about whether those improvements also translate to patients with type 2 diabetes and if the benefits are comparable to those from calorie restriction (CR).

“Many people find counting calories very hard to stick to in the long term, but our study shows that watching the clock may offer a simple way to decrease calories and lose weight,” Pavlou said in a press release. “Although time-restricted eating is becoming increasingly popular, no other studies have looked at an 8-hour eating window in people with type 2 diabetes.”

So, the researchers conducted a study to compare the effects of 8-hour TRE vs. control and CR on cardiometabolic risk factors, glycemic control and body weight among adults with overweight or obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Pavlou and colleagues randomly assigned 57 participants to one of three 6-month long interventions: control (eating with no restrictions), CR (25% energy restriction daily) or 8-hour TRE (eating with no restrictions from 12:00 to 8:00 pm and water fasting from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm).

The researchers found that, compared with CR and control, TRE offered a greater degree of body fat loss, weight loss and increase in HDL over 6-months. However, neither CR nor TRE offered significant changes for glycemic control or cardiometabolic risk factors.

Body weight decreased significantly by month 6 in the TRE group (–4.7 ± 4%; –5 ± 5.2 kg), vs. controls (–0.8 ± 3.4%) and CR (–1.6 ± 2.3%; 1.9 ± 2.6 kg). Overall, those undergoing TRE lost 3.55% of their body weight relative to the control group, according to the release. That translates to someone who weighs 275 pounds losing around 10 pounds.

Additionally, fat mass significantly decreased in the TRE group (–3.0 ± 3.0 kg) compared with control (–0.4 ± 2.7 kg) but not CR (–1.1 ± 2.8 kg). Finally, HDL significantly increased in the TRE group (3.3 ± 4.8 mg/dL) compared with CR (–1.4 ± 6.8 mg/dL) but not with control (1.3 ± 4.4mg/dL).

“Our study shows that time-restricted eating can be a good alternative for those with type 2 diabetes who want to lose weight and improve their blood sugar,” Pavlou said in the release. “However, there are multiple types of medications for those with type 2 diabetes, some of which can cause low blood sugar and some that need to be taken with food. Therefore, it is important to work closely with a dietitian or doctor when implementing this dieting approach.”

Reference:

• Pavlou V, et al. Effect of 8-hour time restricted eating versus daily calorie restriction on body weight and glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes. Presented at: NUTRITION; July 22-25, 2023; Boston.