With the acceleration of people's pace of life, the incidence of eating rhythm imbalances such as skipping breakfast and eating late at night is increasing, which has a profound impact on people's physiological and metabolic health. Studies have shown that irregular meals can easily lead to unbalanced nutrient intake or reduced absorption efficiency, which can lead to malnutrition.

What are the benefits of restricted eating?

In the face of health risks caused by imbalanced eating rhythms, a dietary pattern called "Time-Restricted Eating" (TRE) has attracted attention in recent years. Time-restricted eating is an intermittent fasting strategy that advocates limiting the daily eating window to a regular time frame (usually 4~10 hours) while maintaining an empty stomach the rest of the time. For example, if you choose an 8-hour eating window, start your first meal at 8 a.m., complete all meals by 4 p.m., and maintain a feeding window from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the restricted eating period.

Time-restricted eating has been found to have multiple health benefits by adjusting eating timing to align the eating-fasting cycle with the body's circadian rhythm. In obese people, time-restricted eating can significantly reduce body weight and improve body fat; in patients with metabolic syndrome, time-restricted eating can significantly reduce blood pressure and improve blood lipid levels; in people with diabetes and high-risk diabetes, time-restricted eating can improve insulin sensitivity, lower fasting blood glucose levels, and reduce insulin resistance; in people with metabolic-related fatty liver disease, time-restricted eating significantly reduced liver fat deposits, reduced body weight and body fat, and improved liver function. These evidences from high-quality clinical intervention studies suggest that time-restricted eating has the potential to prevent and manage metabolic disorders such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver.

Can you eat as much as you want?

Time-restricted eating emphasizes keeping the eating window within a certain time frame, but this in no way means that diet quality can be ignored. In fact, diet quality is just as important as eating time, and the two complement each other and together determine the health effects of diet

The key to the setting of the eating window lies in its synchronization with the body's circadian rhythm. Shortening the eating window, especially at an early end of the meal, helps the body better repair metabolism and regulates blood sugar and insulin sensitivity during the night. However, if you consume a lot of ultra-processed foods, high-sugar drinks, and unhealthy fats during the eating window, it may undermine the benefits of time-restricted eating in terms of metabolic improvement. Conversely, time-restricted eating can be better associated with healthy eating patterns and better health improvements. For example, a study published in the journal Nature Medicine showed that time-restricted eating combined with the Mediterranean diet and healthy lifestyle coaching had better weight loss results than the Mediterranean diet and healthy lifestyle coaching alone.

Therefore, ideal time-restricted eating should pay attention to both the time planning of the eating window and the quality of the diet within the eating window, that is, in the eating window that conforms to the circadian rhythm of the human body, choose nutritious foods and nutrients to maintain a healthy dietary structure.

The health benefits of time-restricted eating not only depend on the eating window, but also on the quality of the diet. Only the dual guarantee of "eating time + diet quality" can maximize the health benefits.

Is limited-time eating suitable for ordinary people?

Although time-restricted eating can help improve metabolic health, stabilize blood sugar, increase energy, and improve sleep quality, time-restricted eating is not for everyone. For ordinary people who do not need to lose weight, time-restricted eating may have some adverse effects if not practiced properly, such as a short window period or insufficient food, which may lead to energy deficiency and fatigue; Too strict time limits may also bring psychological stress.

For pregnant and lactating women, children and adolescents in the growth and development period, people with a history of eating disorders, diabetics (especially those using insulin or hypoglycemic drugs), underweight or malnourished, and people with special medical requirements, time-restricted eating may pose health risks. Therefore, it is important to carry out time-restricted eating under the guidance of a dietitian or professional and avoid adopting time-restricted eating strategies on your own.