RCTHumann = 152019
Time-Restricted Feeding Improves Glucose Tolerance in Men at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Crossover Trial.
Plain-language summary
This study set out to see whether restricting the hours of the day a man eats improves how his body handles sugar. Fifteen men at risk of type 2 diabetes, average age 55 and in the obese range for body weight, ate within a 9 hour window for a week, either early in the day or later, and were compared against their usual eating. Both windows improved glucose tolerance. Only the early window lowered average fasting blood sugar, and insulin, fatty acids and gut hormones did not show a significant change. Two other studies in this library test the same idea of early time-restricted eating in different men, run by unrelated research groups, so the three are independent of each other.
Key findings
- Time-restricted feeding (TRF) improved glucose tolerance in men at risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Only early TRF (8 am to 5 pm) lowered average fasting blood sugar.
- TRF had no effect on insulin, nonesterified fatty acids, or gut hormones.
How to analyze the study yourself
- Study type
- Randomized trials assign people to groups by chance, so differences between groups are unlikely to come from who chose what.
- Population
- Overweight men at risk for type 2 diabetes.
- Funding
- Not reported
- Takeaway
- This study found that eating within a 9-hour window improved blood sugar control in men at risk for diabetes, with an early schedule (8 am to 5 pm) also lowering fasting blood sugar. If you are at risk for diabetes, it may be worth trying an early eating window to help manage blood sugar.