Time-restricted eating (16/8) and energy-restricted diet: effects on diet quality, body composition and biochemical parameters in healthy overweight females

Background Time-restricted eating (TRE) is a current popular dietary strategy for noncommunicable diseases. However, studies demonstrated contradictory results for it and in all dietary strategies, diet quality is an the important part of the well-being. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of TRE and energy-restricted diet (ERD) on the nutritional status and diet quality of individuals. Methods This pilot study was completed 23 healthy overweight female. Anthropometric and body composition measurements of individuals were taken. The energy expenditure was measured using indirect calorimetry. Blood pressure and heart rate measurements were made. Biochemical parameters were evaluated and food consumption were taken. The quality of dietary intake was assessed using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) -2015. The physical activity levels of the individuals were estimated using the physical activity record. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (version 22.0) software was used for all analyses. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results After 8 weeks of intervention, while no change was observed in the diet quality of the individuals in the TRE group (p > 0.05), a significant increase was found in the diet quality score of the individuals in the ERD group (p < 0.05). There was a 3.2% and 5.5% decrease in body weight of individuals in the TRE and ERD groups, respectively (p < 0.05). While no significant change was observed in the body fat percentage of individuals in the TRE group (p > 0.05), a 7.1% decrease was observed in the ERD group (p < 0.05). A statistically significant decrease was found in the total cholesterol (3.7%) in the ERD group, and in the total cholesterol (6.7%) and low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (6.5%) in the TRE group. In addition, a statistically significant increase was found in adiponectin (77.3%) and total antioxidant status (TAS) (13.2%) in the ERD group. Conclusion Energy-restricted diet yielded better results in weight loss and improvement of body composition and diet quality compared to TRE. Also, a decrease in total cholesterol level was found in the ERD group. However, more studies should be done with longer follow-ups and high sample sizes are very important in terms of creating public health-based recommendations.