Written by Joyce Smith, BS. After twelve-weeks of time-restricted eating, study participants with metabolic syndrome (Mets) experienced weight loss, healthier body composition, lower blood pressure, and decreased levels of cardiovascular disease-promoting lipids.
Thirty percent of the US population have MetS and a greatly increased risk of developing more severe health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke 1. The risk of T2DM has increased 5-fold while CVD risk has doubled over a 10-year period 1. People with MetS have three or more of five specific risk factors: high fasting blood sugar, high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and abdominal obesity 2. Atherogenic dyslipidemia, which accompanies the development of insulin resistance, can include high triglycerides, high apolipoprotein B, a high low-density lipoprotein particle (LDL-p) number, and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C]) 2. Current treatments requires weight loss and lifestyle changes that can be very challenging; thus, new and easy to implement behavioral interventions are needed to prevent or delay the development of diabetes and heart disease.
Studies have shown that irregular meal timing can negatively impact cardiometabolic health 3. Time-restricted eating (TRE) is an emerging dietary intervention that attempts to maintain a consistent daily cycle of feeding and fasting to support healthy circadian rhythms 4 Erratic eating patterns and eating over an extended period of time during a 24-hour day can disrupt circadian rhythms and increase the risk for metabolic syndrome 5.
Wilkinson et al 6 in the following pilot study, utilized a ten-hour time-restricted eating (TRE) protocol that would limit daily dietary intake to a consistent 10-hour window in order to create a 14-hour nightly fast. They sought to determine whether controlling the timing of food intake to support circadian rhythms would improve the health of individuals that were already being treated for cardiometabolic diseases. To that end, they recruited 19 obese participants (13 men and 6 women) who were all diagnosed with MetS and who were all receiving standard care. All participants had been regularly eating during a time window of more than 14 hours per day and were now required to reduce their daily eating window from 14 hours to a self-selected 10 hour window for 12 weeks. Eighty-four percent of participants were taking at least one medication such as a statin to lower cholesterol or an antihypertensive for high blood pressure.
Overall, participants experienced improved sleep as well as a decrease in body weight (P<0.04). They also had a 4% reduction in body mass index, and a 3% reduction in measurements of body weight, abdominal fat, and waist circumference. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure decreased by 4% and 8% respectively. Lipid measurements of LDL-C (low density lipoprotein cholesterol) decreased by 11%, total cholesterol decreased by 7% and non-HDL-C (non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) decreased by 9%. No significant improvements were seen in glucose, insulin, triglycerides or hs-CRP.
Twelve weeks of TRE led to weight loss, healthier body composition (including decreased waist circumference), lower blood pressure, lower levels of cardiovascular disease-promoting lipids (LDL-C, non-HDL-C) and more restorative sleep. TRE could become a beneficial adjunct to statin and anti-hypertensive medications for those with metabolic syndrome.
It should be noted that this was an unblinded, single-arm pilot study with only 19 participants. Further randomized, placebo controlled trials are recommended.
Source: Wilkinson, Michael J., et al. “Ten-hour time-restricted eating reduces weight, blood pressure, and atherogenic lipids in patients with metabolic syndrome.” Cell metabolism 31.1 (2020): 92-104.
Click here to read the full text study.
Posted March 16, 2021.
Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.
References:
- Alberti KG, Eckel RH, Grundy SM, et al. Harmonizing the metabolic syndrome: a joint interim statement of the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; American Heart Association; World Heart Federation; International Atherosclerosis Society; and International Association for the Study of Obesity. Circulation. 2009;120(16):1640-1645.
- Sperling LS, Mechanick JI, Neeland IJ, et al. The CardioMetabolic Health Alliance: Working Toward a New Care Model for the Metabolic Syndrome. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2015;66(9):1050-1067.
- Sierra-Johnson J, Undén AL, Linestrand M, et al. Eating meals irregularly: a novel environmental risk factor for the metabolic syndrome. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md). 2008;16(6):1302-1307.
- Panda S. Circadian physiology of metabolism. Science. 2016;354(6315):1008-1015.
- Lunn RM, Blask DE, Coogan AN, et al. Health consequences of electric lighting practices in the modern world: A report on the National Toxicology Program’s workshop on shift work at night, artificial light at night, and circadian disruption. The Science of the total environment. 2017;607-608:1073-1084.
- Wilkinson MJ, Manoogian ENC, Zadourian A, et al. Ten-Hour Time-Restricted Eating Reduces Weight, Blood Pressure, and Atherogenic Lipids in Patients with Metabolic Syndrome. Cell Metab. 2020;31(1):92-104.e105.
