Research

Hormonal

Early Time-Restricted Eating (eTRE) combined with calorie restriction is more effective for weight loss and fat mass reduction than delayed TRE (dTRE) or broader TRE windows.

If you can manage it, shifting your eating window to earlier in the day (eTRE) combined with a calorie deficit yields better weight and fat loss results than shifting it to later in the day (dTRE). However, if early eating is socially unsustainable, any consistent TRE window with a calorie deficit is still superior to no TRE.

ModerateQualifiesLOW confidence
Subgroup analysis suggested that early TRE is more effective in weight loss (WMD: −1.42, 95% CI: −1.84 to −1.01, and I2: 0%) and improving fat mass (WMD: −1.06, 95% CI: −1.91 to −0.22, and I2: 0%) than delayed or broader TRE when combined with CR.
Jing-Chao Sun et al. · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2023

Why this rating

Based on subgroup analysis of the same 8 RCTs; GRADE for fat mass was 'very low'.

Source

Time-restricted eating with calorie restriction on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Jing-Chao Sun et al. · European Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2023

DOI 10.1038/s41430-023-01311-w

Meta-analysis · 8 studiesCited 44×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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