Doctors Say This ‘Relatively Simple’ Diet Can Lead to Major Weight Loss in Just 3 Months

While there are countless ways to shed pounds, most personal trainers and nutritionists agree that a balanced mix of healthy eating and regular exercise is the foundation for maintaining a healthy body. Recent research is now highlighting one simple diet that stands out as particularly effective for weight loss compared to other options.

The study followed 99 overweight or obese adults for 12 months as they participated in Time-Restricted Eating (TRE), a form of intermittent fasting. The individuals were broken up into four groups: one was instructed to follow habitual eating (meaning they had a 12+ hour eating window), one followed early TRE (an 8-hour eating window before 10 a.m.), one followed late TRE (an 8-hour eating window after 1 p.m.), and the last followed self-selected TRE (participants chose their 8-hour window). All groups followed a Mediterranean diet program.

At the beginning and end of the 12 weeks, researchers measured body weight and waist and hip circumferences. They also followed up a year after the study had ended. 

Related: Born to Sleep Less? Doctors Say This Rare Gene Mutation Might Be Why

They found that after 12 weeks, all of the groups lost weight. The habitual eating group cut their weight by roughly three pounds, the early TRE group dropped just over 9 pounds, the late TRE group lost nearly 7 pounds, and the self-selected TRE group a little more than 8 pounds.

“Our study found that restricting the eating window to 8 hours at any time of the day for 3 months can result in significant weight loss for at least a year,” said lead author Dr. Alba Camacho-Cardenosa, from the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada. “These benefits can be attributed to the 16-hour fasting window rather than the time of eating.”

It's important to note that there were no substantial differences between the TRE groups. This may indicate that regardless of the type of time-restricted eating you participate in, it can be seen as an effective long-term approach for sustaining weight loss, even beyond the three months you practice it. 

“This kind of intermittent fasting appears feasible for adults with overweight or obesity who wish to have a relatively simple way of losing and maintaining weight loss that is less tedious and more time efficient compared with daily calorie counting, but it warrants further investigations in larger and longer-term studies,” said Dr. Jonatan R. Ruiz, study coordinator from the University of Granada.