The report of a randomized controlled trial on time-restricted eating (TRE) without calorie counting for weight loss in a racially diverse population published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine includes University of Illinois Cancer Center members among its 14 authors.
Krista Varady, PhD, the study’s corresponding author, is part of the Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control research program, as is fellow author Lisa Tussing-Humphreys, PhD, MS, RD, a co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control research program. Nearly all the study authors are affiliated with the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC).
Details in Annals of Internal Medicine
The 12-month study conducted at UIC included 90 adults with obesity. Researchers sought to determine whether TRE (eating only between noon and 8 p.m. without calorie counting) was more effective for weight control and cardiometabolic risk reduction compared with restricting calories (25% daily) or a control group (told to maintain their weight, physical activity habits, and eating over a period of 10 or more hours per day).
Compared with the control group, the primary outcome of absolute weight loss was about 10 pounds (4.61 kg) for the TRE group and almost 12 pounds (5.42 kg) for the calorie-restriction (CR) group, with no statistically significant difference between the TRE and CR by month 12.
“Time-restricted eating is more effective in producing weight loss when compared with control but not more effective than calorie restriction in a racially diverse population,” the study found.