as restrictive as such fasting typically is, says Dr. Mary Vouyiouklis Kellis, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
The 10-hour window “actually was pretty generous for the study because sometimes with time-restricted eating they go as far as having you eat just 6 to 8 hours,” Kellis notes. “This was definitely a lot more doable.”
The fact that participants can eat whatever they want also makes the diet easier to stick with.
“Eating within a shorter window of time essentially is a form of caloric restriction, because there’s only so much you can eat in 10 hours. But we also know that eating the wrong foods doesn’t help, right?” Srinath says. “Eating excessive carbohydrates, eating excessive fatty or processed foods, can lead to detriments both in terms of metabolic outcomes as well as weight gain and things like that,” she continues.
“That actually can be a limitation here, in that they didn’t provide dietary guidance,” Srinath says. “If they did, maybe they would have had greater significance in terms of their outcomes.”
The results of the study weren’t perfect. The researchers had hoped to see participants’ insulin resistance improve over the three-week fasting period, but that didn’t pan out.
However, Kellis notes that the study was very brief and involved only a handful of people — a longer time spent with intermittent fasting might cause even more improvements in patients’ metabolism. In addition, some of the people were on diabetic medications that could have hampered the effects of fasting.
“It’s hard to tease that out, the effectiveness of time-restricted eating in terms of insulin sensitivity, from this study,” Kellis says.
If you would like try intermittent fasting, talk to your doctor first to ensure it is safe. If it is safe a nutrionist can help you determine the best way to proceed.