A Metabolomic Analysis to Assess How Time-Restricted Eating Improves Cardiometabolic Health

Time-Restricted Eating (TRE) is a consistent 6-12-hour daily eating window without any overt caloric reduction. TRE has been shown in pre-clinical and clinical studies to have widespread benefits including improved cardiometabolic health. Most clinical trials have studied healthy or overweight participants, but the effect of TRE on patients undergoing medical treatment for cardiometabolic disease is unclear. In this single-arm paired-sample pilot study, 19 participants with metabolic syndrome and who had an eating window of 14 hours or more at baseline were put on a 10-hour TRE intervention for 3 months. Despite most participants already taking antihypertensives and statins at baseline, there were significant decreases in blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. There were also significant decreases in HbA1c, waist circumference, and body weight. To better understand the mechanism behind these improvements, here we report the changes in plasma metabolite changes following the 3-month TRE intervention. These findings are important to understand the physiological effects of TRE, especially for individuals to use as a co-treatment.