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expert reaction to conference press release about time-restricted eating and weight loss in overweight or obese adults

A conference press release presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Malaga looks at time-restricted eating (TRE) and weight loss in obese adults. 

 

Dr Adam Collins, Associate Professor of Nutrition, University of Surrey, said:

The finding that TRE protocols, whether early, late or self-selected eating windows, lead to weight loss, is consistent with other studies.  What is of interest here is that, strictly speaking, TRE protocols are not prescribed to reduce or restrict calories, just the eating window itself.  Yet inevitably, most people fail to squeeze all of what they used to eat daily into the new window; instead, they change their eating behaviour and end up eating less.  This may manifest as skipping whole meals, such as breakfast when abiding to late TRE windows.  Or omitting snacks and drinks (including alcohol), either between meals or later in the day/evening.  The latter may be significant in early time-restricted protocols.

“The novelty of this new communicated study is in the follow-up of these participants after 12 months, with the observation that both early and late TRE groups managed to maintain their weight loss.  Interestingly, those who self-selected their window didn’t manage to keep the weight off as successfully.  It is possible that following the more regimented early and late TRE created more sustainable changes in eating behaviour and dietary habits, that remained after the intervention.

“The originally published study was, I feel, robustly designed, with MRI-derived VAT as the primary outcome.  It is unclear in this follow-up a) how many (i.e. what proportion) of the original participants were measured at follow-up across the different intervention arms.  And b) what outcome measures were assessed (e.g. VAT).  This would be very important for context.

“One general note of caution on TRE protocols is that altering the opportunities to eat, and potential for meal skipping, may compromise the nutritional adequacy of the diet.  This may be an issue for those whose diet was marginally nutritionally replete to start with.  To this end, we are midway through a study exploring the impact of TRE specifically on eating behaviour and nutritional adequacy of people’s diets.”

 

Dr Maria Chondronikola, Principal Investigator and Lead for Human Nutrition, University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories, University of Cambridge, said:

The research study described in the press release explores the effects of time-restricted eating (TRE) on weight management, a topic that has attracted significant interest attention due to its potential health implications.

“While the press release provides an overview of the main outcomes of the study, it does not offer sufficient information to fully evaluate the scientific rigor and methodology of this investigation.  This is not surprising given that the summary is intended for a broader audience.  However, this limits the ability to assess the scientific value of the study in detail.  Nevertheless, the findings outlined in the release appear reasonable within the context of existing literature.

“The 3-month results showing a 3–4% weight loss in response to the different TRE groups align with previous studies in the field.  These results suggest that TRE may have modest effects on weight management.  However, the novel finding in this study is the observation that the early and late TRE groups (but not the TRE group with the self-selected eating window) experienced greater weight loss maintenance over time.  This is an interesting development and warrants further exploration, particularly in how TRE might help individuals sustain weight loss.

“It is important to note that this study did not include a caloric restriction group, and therefore, its results cannot be directly compared to other weight loss strategies that involve intentional caloric restriction.

“Furthermore, additional information on participant adherence to the prescribed eating windows is crucial.  Understanding how well participants adhered to the timing of their meals, the level of their caloric intake and whether TRE changed any obesity-related metabolic outcomes would provide valuable insight into the true effectiveness of TRE.

“In conclusion, while the study’s findings are interesting, more detailed data on study design and compliance rates are needed to fully evaluate the results.”

 

Prof Alexandra Johnstone, Theme Lead for Nutrition, Obesity and Disease, Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeen, said:

“Dr Alba Camacho-Cardenosa and colleagues have shared some preliminary comments on their research findings, which are to be presented to peers at an obesity-related conference.  With only the press release to refer to, this limits the scope of this commentary, and I am unable to comment on the robustness of the work.  For example, there are no statistics mentioned in the press release, and it is therefore rather vague to interpret the results.

“I do, however, look forward to reading the paper when peer-reviewed, as there is a lot of interest in the role of chrono-nutrition and timing of eating as a dietary weight loss tool.  The team present interesting data that support a time-restricted eating approach, as a 16 hour fasting window (with 8 hours eating), with a 12 week intervention period and a one-year follow-up.  The TRE approach was useful to help participants maintain their weight loss.  Aside from looking at their reported percentage weight change, I am interested in how health parameters changed in response to the dietary approaches, and this information is not provided in the press release.

“My own group already published work to show that timing of eating the largest meal of the day did not impact on weight loss (Cell Metabolismhttps://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/pdfExtended/S1550-4131(22)00344-8).  Thus, these data are in line of our current understanding.”

 

 

 

Press release: ‘3-month programme of time-restricted eating at any time of the day supports long-term weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity’. Authors are Alba Camacho-Cardenosa et al.

This was presented as a poster at the European Congress on Obesity. The embargo lifted at 23:01 UK time on Saturday 10th May 2025. 

There is no paper.

 

 

 

Declared interests

Dr Adam Collins: “No conflict of interest to declare.”

Dr Maria Chondronikola: “I am currently leading a intervention study on the effects of time restricted eating in cardiometabolic health: https://trestudy.org.uk/#:~:text=Dr.,in%20the%20UK%20and%20worldwide.”

Prof Alexandra Johnstone: “My COI is that I hold voluntary committee roles for The Nutrition Society, Association for The Study of Obesity and British Nutrition Foundation.”

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