Limiting eating to 8-hours per day prevents obesity from a high-fat diet according to mouse study

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Thursday, November 22, 2012 12:13 pm Email this article

Limiting eating to 8-hours per day (and fasting 16 hours per day) prevents obesity, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, inflammation and elevated insulin levels according to a study in mice given a high-fat diet (61% fat) even though the mice were allowed to eat as much as they wanted to.

Another group of mice that were given the same high-fat diet, but the food was available 24-hours per day, became obese even though they ate an equivalent number of calories during the 4.5 months study.

Time-restricted access to food, allowing the mice to only eat 8 hours per day, prevented obesity and metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver by:

• increasing the release of fat from fat cells (lipolysis)
• increasing the breakdown of fat in the mitochondria (beta oxidation)
• increasing fat oxidation (the burning of fat)
• increasing energy expenditure (calories burned)
• reducing insulin levels
• reprogramming glucose metabolism away from gluconeogenesis (the synthesis of glucose from fat and protein), and towards glycolysis (converting glucose into ATP, the universal energy molecule)

Diet

High-Fat Diet available 8-hours per day vs 24-hours per day

Groups of mice were given access to a high-fat (61% fat) diet either 8-hours per day or 24-hours per day.

Body Weight

Mice given access to High-Fat Diet 24-hours per day weighed 38% more than mice given access to food 8-hours per day

By the end of the 4.5 month study, the mice given access to a high-fat diet 24-hours per day weighed 38% more than the mice given access to the same high-fat diet only 8-hours per day.

The weight of the mice given access to a high-fat diet 24-hours per day was 47 grams versus 34 grams for the mice given access to the same high-fat diet only 8-hours per day.

Reference

Hatori M, Vollmers C, Zarrinpar A, DiTacchio L, Bushong EA, Gill S, Leblanc M, Chaix A, Joens M, Fitzpatrick JA, Ellisman MH, and Panda S. Time-restricted feeding without reducing caloric intake prevents metabolic diseases in mice fed a high-fat diet. Cell Metab, 2012 Jun 6; 15(6): 848-860.

Author’s Contact Info

Satchidananda Panda
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
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Articles on the same subject can be found here:

• Fasting, Intermittent