Time-restricted eating no better than counting calories – study

In a blow to believers in time-restricted eating – a form of intermittent fasting where people only eat during a restricted window during the day – researchers in China have found the method has no significant benefits compared with simple calorie restriction in battling obesity.

The study, published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, split 139 overweight to significantly obese adults in Guangzhou into two study groups that were followed for a year.

The data suggest that caloric intake restriction explained most of the beneficial effects of a time-restricted eating regimen, according to researchers at Southern Medical University in Guangzhou, China.

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