Research

Energy balance

Time-restricted eating (16/8) with ad libitum intake reduces body weight and improves lipid profiles (total cholesterol and LDL-C) in overweight females, but does not significantly reduce body fat percentage or improve diet quality compared to energy-restricted diets.

If you are an overweight female looking to lose weight and improve cholesterol, a 16/8 fasting window is effective for weight loss and lipid improvement. However, do not expect it to significantly reduce body fat percentage or improve your overall diet quality compared to a structured calorie-restricted diet. You must maintain your current activity level.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
After 8 weeks of intervention, while no change was observed in the diet quality of the individuals in the TRE group (p > 0.05), a significant increase was found in the diet quality score of the individuals in the ERD group (p < 0.05). There was a 3.2% and 5.5% decrease in body weight of individuals in the TRE and ERD groups, respectively (p < 0.05). While no significant change was observed in the body fat percentage of individuals in the TRE group (p > 0.05), a 7.1% decrease was observed in the ERD group (p < 0.05). A statistically significant decrease was found in the total cholesterol (3.7%) in the ERD group, and in the total cholesterol (6.7%) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (6.5%) in the TRE group.
Özge Mengi Çelik et al. · BMC Nutrition · 2023

Why this rating

Pilot study with small sample size (n=23, n=10 in TRE group) and short duration (8 weeks).

Source

Time-restricted eating (16/8) and energy-restricted diet: effects on diet quality, body composition and biochemical parameters in healthy overweight females

Özge Mengi Çelik et al. · BMC Nutrition · 2023

DOI 10.1186/s40795-023-00753-6

rct · n=23Cited 20×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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