Researchers have found that your diet plan can withstand some temporary
interruptions.
During the study nearly 400 mice, ranging from
normal to obese, were subjected to various types of diets and lengths of time restrictions.
Researchers found that regardless of whether their diets were high in fat, fat
and sucrose or just fructose, the mice that were given time restrictions of 9
to 12 hours-and consumed the same amount of daily calories as their
unrestricted counterparts-gained less weight than the controls. The benefits of time-restricted feeding showed up regardless of the
weight of the mouse, type of diet and length of the time restriction, to some
degree. Variations in the time window in which the mice were allowed to eat a
high-fat diet-including 9, 10 and 12 hour periods, all resulted in similarly
lean mice. However, for a 15-hour group, the benefits conferred by time
restriction became less.
Researchers gave some of the time-restricted mice a respite on weekends,
allowing them free access to high-fat meals for the two days. These mice had
less fat mass and gained less weight than the mice given a freely available,
high-fat diet in the whole week. In fact, the mice that were freely fed just on
weekends looked almost the same as mice given access to food with time
restriction of 9 or 12 hours a day for seven days a week, thus suggesting that
the diet can withstand some temporary interruptions.
Researchers also found that the mice who had already become obese by
eating a freely available high-fat diet lost their body weight by five percent
within a few days only with time restriction of nine-hour window. Eating this
way prevented the mice from further weight gain compared to the group kept on
the freely available high-fat diet.
Study's first author Amandine Chaix, a postdoctoral researcher in
Panda's lab said, "The fact that it worked no matter what the diet, and the
fact that it worked over the weekend and weekdays, was a very nice surprise."
Source: Medindia
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