To lose weight, it’s important to watch what you eat. but UAB researchers are discovering that watching when you eat could be helpful as well.
Just how helpful is a question Courtney Peterson, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UAB School of Health Professions Department of Nutrition Sciences, is trying to answer. She has led pioneering studies examining forms of intermittent fasting—with a focus on early time-restricted feeding (eTRF). That’s when you fast for at least 14 hours or more a day and eat dinner in the mid- to late afternoon.
Her team’s research indicates that this meal-timing approach has the potential to help people lose weight because it appears to curb appetite, which may help people eat less. But it could bring other benefits, such as lowering blood pressure and blood sugar and increasing fat burning. It may even lower oxidative stress (a form of molecular damage) and possibly activate genes with anti-aging effects.
Peterson took a few minutes to explain the science—and the potential long-term advantages—of intermittent fasting and eTRF.