Research

Hormonal

Flexible time-restricted eating combined with aerobic exercise improves insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and insulin levels more effectively than either intervention alone.

To improve your insulin sensitivity, combining an 8-hour eating window with regular moderate aerobic exercise is more effective than doing either one alone. This approach helps lower insulin levels and improve insulin resistance markers more significantly than diet or exercise in isolation.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
the combined group (flexTRE+EX) exhibited a larger reduction compared to the other two intervention groups (flexTRE+EX vs. flexTRE: −2.98 mU/L [−5.06 to −0.89]; P < 0.001; flexTRE+EX vs. EX: −2.84 mU/L [−5.25 to −0.42]; P = 0.003) at post-intervention... Similarly, group-by-time interaction effects were also observed in the homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR)... the combined group showed a larger reduction compared to the other two intervention groups
Zi-Han Dai et al. · Nature Communications · 2025

Why this rating

RCT with clear statistical significance for insulin and HOMA-IR improvements in the combined group.

Source

Flexible time-restricted eating combined with exercise in a free-living setting for middle-aged women with overweight/obesity: a randomized controlled trial

Zi-Han Dai et al. · Nature Communications · 2025

DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-65678-z

rct · n=104Cited 1×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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