Time Restricted Eating for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

Innovative lifestyle strategies to treat type 2 diabetes (T2DM) are critically needed. At present, daily calorie restriction (CR) is the main diet prescribed to patients with T2DM for weight loss. However, many patients find it difficult to adhere to CR because calorie intake must be vigilantly monitored every day. In light of these problems with CR, another approach that limits timing of food intake, instead of number of calories consumed, has been developed. This diet is called "time restricted eating" (TRE) and involves confining the period of food intake to 6-8 h per day. TRE allows individuals to self-select foods and eat ad libitum during a large part of the day, which greatly increases compliance to these protocols. Recent findings show that TRE is effective for weight loss and improved glycemic control in patients with obesity and prediabetes. However no long-term randomized controlled trial has examined whether TRE is safe and effective for patients with obesity and T2DM. This study is a 6-month randomized, controlled trial that aims to compare the effects of TRE (eating all food between 12:00 pm to 8:00 pm, without calorie counting), versus CR (25% energy restriction daily), and a control group eating over a period of 10 or more hours per day, on change in body weight (%), glycemic control, and cardiometabolic risk factors, in adults with obesity and T2DM.