Comparative study of time-restricted eating on body composition and metabolic parameters in climacteric women with obesity: analysis of a pre-post intervention.

Abstract

Objective: The physiological changes inherent to the climacteric period can trigger or aggravate overweight/obesity, among several other health disorders. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of time-restricted eating (TRE) on body composition and cardiometabolic parameters in climacteric women with obesity submitted to caloric restriction (CR) through a hypocaloric diet.

Methods: We conducted an analysis of a clinical trial in a pre-post design that included adult climacteric women with obesity. Participants were divided into two groups: hypocaloric diet control group (n = 30) - with hypocaloric diet and free meal times, and hypocaloric diet and time-restricted eating group (HTRE) (n = 27) - with hypocaloric diet and TRE (fasting from 7 pm to 7 am), for 10 weeks. Anthropometric and biochemical parameters were evaluated before and after the intervention period. A significance level of P < 0.05 was considered for all cases.

Results: Both groups showed a reduction in all anthropometric parameters, but without significant difference (P = 0.34) between groups. However, some metabolic parameters were significantly highlighted in the HTRE such as cholesterol level normalization (HTRE, 181.76 ± 34.20 mg/dL) and a decrease in plasma atherogenicity (P = 0.02), glycated hemoglobin (P < 0.001), estimated mean glucose (P = 0.02), and alanine aminotransferase (P = 0.02), unlike the hypocaloric diet control group, which did not show such significance.

Conclusions: In this study, from the perspective of body composition, similar changes were observed between the group subjected to CR alone and the group subjected to CR combined with a 12-hour overnight fast. However, there was an indication of superior improvement in glycemic and lipid parameters in the group subjected to the 12-hour overnight fast. These findings suggest the potential for TRE, as implemented, to have positive effects on reducing cardiovascular risk and other chronic metabolic diseases.