Video | Study | Why TRE Works | Calories | Food Choices | “Exercise Snacks” | Takeaway

The five criteria of metabolic syndrome include a large waist circumference, high blood pressure, high blood glucose, high triglycerides, and low HDL cholesterol. When at least three of these conditions are present, metabolic syndrome is diagnosed. 

An excessive intake of unhealthy foods is a primary contributing factor to metabolic syndrome. Calorie restriction mitigates this problem. However, success requires consistent adherence to a calorie deficit over a long period of time. 

If restricting calories hasn’t worked for you, timing when you eat might help. 

That is according to a brand new, well-designed study. This blog post shares how time-restricted eating with or without calorie restriction improves metabolic markers and how you can do what the study participants did to get similar results for yourself. 

Metabolic Syndrome? Timing When You Eat Might Help [Video]

In this video, you’ll learn…

• The results of a recent study on Time-Restricted Eating (TRE).
• How your body digests food differently throughout the day.
• Practical ways to apply the results of this study to your life.

The Study

The study, published in October of this year, 2024, builds off of a pilot study that I discussed in my book on intermittent fasting. 

The new study was a randomized controlled trial, which is considered the gold standard of medical research because it eliminates many of the biases and confounding variables that distract from other studies.  

The aim of the investigation was to evaluate if time-restricted eating—often referred to as intermittent fasting—could improve metabolic health in those with metabolic syndrome and, as a result, lower their risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke (1).

Eating less and moving more is the traditional approach to achieving these outcomes. However, many people struggle with following this advice as a long-term strategy. Also, past research has shown that people have an easier time sticking with time-restricted eating patterns than calorie-restricted diets. 

The investigative team recruited 108 people with metabolic syndrome who also had a baseline eating window greater than 12 hours per day. The average patient age was 59 years old, 51% were women, and about 85% of them were on medication to manage one or more of their metabolic conditions. 

The participants were randomly split into two groups. One group received standard-of-care nutritional counseling only. The other received the same nutritional counseling and were also required to reduce their eating window by 4 hours or more to achieve a personalized eating window between 8 and 10 hours. 

By the end of the 12-week study, participants in the time-restricted eating (TRE) group had significantly improved their HbA1c, lost weight without losing muscle mass, reduced their BMI, and lost belly fat. 

Although this study only lasted three months, its design made it a strong study that adds to the growing body of research showing that this practical, no-cost, easy-to-stick-with intervention has many metabolic health benefits. Let’s look at why time-restricted eating works and a couple of simple eating and movement tweaks you can make to boost results.

Why Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) Works

Time-restricted eating is an effective tool for improving metabolic health because your body processes food differently depending on the time of day. Drawing a clear line between eating and fasting allows you to work with your body’s natural metabolic rhythm.

Different internal clocks direct our daily metabolic and activity levels. The most familiar one is the circadian rhythm, which helps you keep your wake/sleep cycle on track. This clock is found in your brain and takes its cue from light. 

What we don’t hear about as much is that the human body also has accessory clocks within the organs. These clocks take their cues from food intake. When you start eating, you wake up these digestive clocks, and they go to work, helping you digest, absorb, release, and store energy efficiently.

However, the clocks in these metabolically important organs wind down as your day progresses. The result is that the foods you eat at the beginning of your eating day are handled more efficiently than those consumed later in the day. 

The TRE study acknowledges this phenomenon, as participants were asked to close their eating window at least three hours before bed. 

Basically, by shortening the number of hours during which you consume food, especially in the evening, you work with your body’s natural rhythm and become a more efficient metabolic machine. 

What about Calories? 

An interesting aspect of this study and many other time-restricted eating studies is that, while they often provide nutritional counseling, they do not require participants to consciously reduce their caloric intake.  

Knowing that you don’t have to be focused on calories is freeing for many people and, in my opinion, one of the reasons that intermittent fasting is a good long-term strategy. It’s simply easier to stick with than daily calorie counting. 

Having said that, remember, whenever you put effort into something, you want results. So, don’t mistake a deemphasis on calories as a license to eat an unhealthy diet and lead a sedentary lifestyle. 

Food Choices Improve Metabolic Health

I mentioned that both groups were given nutritional counseling. Specifically, they were counseled on the Mediterranean diet.

When you think of a Mediterranean-style diet, you think about healthy fats from olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds. You also think of fish and seafood entrees alongside whole-food carbohydrate choices, including plenty of non-starchy vegetables and fruits. 

I have a blog post on how to follow a Mediterranean-style keto diet that lists foods to eat. 

A Mediterranean Keto Diet is an effective way to combine the fast weight loss benefit of keto with the heart-healthy advantage of the Mediterranean diet.

“Exercise Snacks” Improve Metabolic Health

Exercise is also critical for improving metabolic health. The challenge is finding the time and desire to perform a workout. 

I want to introduce you to a relatively new exercise concept called “exercise snacks.” These brief bouts of vigorous exercise are dispersed throughout the day and have been shown to combat the negative aspects of a sedentary lifestyle and improve cardiometabolic health (2).

There are different exercises you can utilize. Here is one example of how to perform exercise snacks using bodyweight squats, as described by Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

To implement exercise snacks, perform 10 bodyweight squats every 45 minutes during an extended period of sitting. 

Bodyweight squats engage large muscle groups, which makes them particularly effective for raising the heart rate and promoting glucose uptake in muscles. In fact, this brief, repeated exercise routine improved blood sugar regulation better than a single 30-minute walk (3).

If time and motivation are a challenge for you, try exercise snacks. I’ve found this provides me with a noticeable physical and mental benefit for minimal effort. Here’s what I do. 

When I sit down at my computer to work, I set the timer on my phone to 45 minutes. When it chimes, I get up, do 10 bodyweight squats, and reset the timer. I keep that up during my work day. 

Takeaway

If you have been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome or want to prevent the onset of the condition, follow these tips to do what the study participants did and achieve even more with diet and exercise. 

Eating Window

In the study, the time-restricted eating protocols were personalized based on established eating habits and bedtimes. 

Participants were asked to reduce their established eating window by at least four hours. Therefore, to replicate that pattern, if you typically consume calories for 12 hours per day, reduce your eating window to 8 hours. If you typically eat for 14 hours or more, reduce your eating window to 10 hours. 

As for typical bedtimes, participants were asked to stop eating at least three hours before bed. For example, if your regular bedtime is 10 PM, you would stop eating by 7 PM. 

Food Choices

When your eating window is open, eat a whole-food diet. Study participants were educated about the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes healthy fats, fish/seafood, non-starchy vegetables, and fruits. 

Exercise

During your workday, especially if you sit a lot, perform exercise snacks. You can start with 10 bodyweight squats every 45 minutes. 

The results won’t come overnight, but each of these activities will improve your cardiometabolic health over time. 

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful week!

References:

(1) Manoogian, Emily NC, et al. “Time-Restricted Eating in Adults With Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” Annals of Internal Medicine (2024).

(2) Islam, Hashim, Martin J. Gibala, and Jonathan P. Little. “Exercise snacks: a novel strategy to improve cardiometabolic health.” Exercise and sport sciences reviews 50.1 (2022): 31-37.

(3) Gao, Ying, et al. “Enhanced muscle activity during interrupted sitting improves glycemic control in overweight and obese men.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports 34.4 (2024): e14628.

About the Author

Becky Gillaspy, DC, is the author of The Intermittent Fasting Guide and Cookbook and Zero Sugar / One Month. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with research honors from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1991.