The limitation in the time of meals, specifically “cutting down” on a higher amount of caloric intake early in the day, does not appear to affect weight loss and lowering blood pressure. This follows from research in overweight prediabetic and diabetic patients led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
Does it matter when calories are consumed?
“We have long wondered whether eating during the day affects how the body uses and stores energy,” said study author Nisa M. Maruthur, an associate professor of medicine, epidemiology and nursing at Johns Hopkins University.
Most of the earlier studies didn’t control for calorie count, so it wasn’t clear whether people who ate earlier simply ate fewer calories. In this study, the only thing that was changed was the timing of the meals.
In the 12-week study, Nisa Maruthur and her colleagues looked at 41 overweight adults, mostly African-Americans (90%) with prediabetes or diabetes and an average age of 59 years. Twenty-one of the participants followed a limited time meal: ate at specific times and consumed 80% of their daily calories before 1:00 p.m..
The remaining 20 participants ate their normal meals over a 12-hour window, consuming the half of your daily calories after 5:00 pm All participants ate the same healthy, prepared meals. Their weight and blood pressure were measured at the start of the study, then at four, eight and 12 weeks.
Results of the investigation
The analysis found that participants in both groups lost weight and they had lower blood pressure regardless of when they ate.
We estimate that the team in the more limited period of time would lose more weight. However, it does not happened. “We didn’t see any difference in weight loss in those who consumed the most calories earlier than later in the day, nor any effect on blood pressure levels,” says Nisa Maruthur.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins are collecting more detailed information on participants’ 24-hour blood pressure values and will combine this data with results from a study of the effect of a time-limited diet on blood sugar, insulin, and other hormones.