Benefits of time-restricted eating tied to age, gender

Benefits of time-restricted eating tied to age, gender


Time-restricted eating, which limits food intake to specific hours, has become a popular weight-loss strategy. Now, scientists have determined that age and gender might affect those results.

And while weight loss is the primary goal with time-restricted eating, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies also found it delivers added protection against infectious diseases as well as insulin resistance, which can raise blood sugar levels.

Working with male and female mice that were equivalent in age to 20- and 42-year-old humans, the scientists fed them a high-fat, high-sugar diet. Eating was restricted to nine hours per day. The team then tested for a variety of health measures, including muscle mass, blood sugar regulation, performance and endurance.

They found that time-restricted eating provided strong protection from fatty liver disease, regardless of age and gender. For other conditions, the benefits of time-restricted eating were more varied. The female subjects were not protected from weight gain but did get other benefits such as better blood-sugar control and less-fatty livers.

After 16 hours of fasting, young and middle-age male mice who were on time-restricted eating had smaller increases in blood sugar than those that were not on the time-controlled diet. In middle-age mice, the scientists noted a faster return to normal blood-sugar levels for those on time-restricted eating.

Scientists say the results in mice provide a strong framework for further studying time-restricted eating in people.

Until then, know that the benefits of time-restricted eating might vary with your age and gender.

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