Research

Mixed

Short-term time-restricted eating (8-hour window) leads to greater loss of trunk lean mass compared to an extended 12-hour eating window, although total body mass loss is similar.

While your muscle building capacity (MPS) stays the same, you might see a small drop in 'lean mass' on body scans during the first 10 days of an 8-hour eating window. This is likely due to fluid or organ mass changes, not actual muscle loss, especially since your muscle synthesis rates are unchanged. Don't panic if your strength doesn't drop.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Lean mass loss was greater following TRE compared with CON ((cid:4)1.0 (cid:1) 0.7 vs. (cid:4)0.2 (cid:1) 0.5 kg, respectively; p = 0.01).
Evelyn B. Parr et al. · Obesity · 2022

Why this rating

RCT with DXA scans, but the interpretation of 'lean mass' loss as potentially fluid/organ mass reduces the certainty of it being true muscle loss.

Source

Eight‐hour time‐restricted eating does not lower daily myofibrillar protein synthesis rates: A randomized control trial

Evelyn B. Parr et al. · Obesity · 2022

DOI 10.1002/oby.23637

rct · n=18Cited 25×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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