12-Week Trial Finds 8-Hour Eating Window Adds No Liver Benefit Beyond Weight Loss
Updated
Updated · emjreviews.com · Jul 13
12-Week Trial Finds 8-Hour Eating Window Adds No Liver Benefit Beyond Weight Loss
2 articles · Updated · emjreviews.com · Jul 13
Summary
A 12-week randomized trial in 197 overweight or obese adults found early, late and self-selected 8-hour time-restricted eating did not improve liver health or gut microbiota more than Mediterranean diet-based usual care.
MRI data showed liver fat fell significantly within each time-restricted eating group, but differences versus usual care were not significant: -0.4% for early TRE, -1.5% for late TRE and -0.7% for self-selected TRE.
Weight loss appeared to drive the benefit: participants who lost at least 5% of body weight saw a 2.6% greater drop in liver fat, and those with MASLD at baseline had a 2.7% larger reduction.
Still, 41% to 44% of participants assigned to time-restricted eating achieved at least 5% weight loss, versus 16% under usual care, suggesting the approach may help some patients mainly by improving adherence and weight reduction.