Research

Hormonal

CER alone increases cortisol levels, whereas CER combined with 16/8 TRF does not, suggesting TRF may mitigate the stress response to caloric restriction.

Caloric restriction can raise stress hormones like cortisol, which might hinder muscle retention. If you are doing a diet, adding an eating window might help keep these stress hormones lower than if you just restrict calories without timing constraints.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Cortisol levels increased only in the CER group.
Daiani Evangelista Ribeiro et al. · Nutrition and Healthy Aging · 2021

Why this rating

Small sample size, single time-point measurement post-intervention.

Source

Continuous energy restriction (CER) plus 16/8 time-restricted feeding improve body composition and metabolic parameters in overweight and obese, but no more than CER alone

Daiani Evangelista Ribeiro et al. · Nutrition and Healthy Aging · 2021

DOI 10.3233/nha-200106

rct · n=24Cited 6×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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