When you eat may be just as important as what you eat:
In the latest paper Dr. Panda worked on, published in December in the journal Cell Metabolism, his team put obese mice on a variety of unhealthy eating regimens, including high-fat and high-fructose diets. One set of mice ate at all times, while another set ate only during periods of nine, 10, 12 or 15 hours. Both sets were given the same unhealthy food options, and both sets ate all the food available, according to the research.
Because the restricted mice could still eat as frequently as they wanted within the given time frame, none of the research tracked the effects of large meals versus smaller, or of frequent snacking.
The benefits of restricted eating times were proportional to the amount of time fasted, said Amandine Chaix, a Salk researcher who works with Dr. Panda. The narrower the window for eating, the more weight the mice lost.
The researchers think this is partly because the restricted schedule aligns with the body’s circadian rhythm, or internal clock. Eating happens at times when the body is more efficient at breaking down foods.
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A second benefit comes from fasting itself, says Mark Mattson, chief of the Cellular and Molecular Neurosciences Section at the National Institutes of Health. After fasting, the body starts to use fat, instead of glucose, as a source of energy. This leads to faster weight loss, among other benefits, he explained.