Understanding time-restricted eating

Q: I’ve been following your guidelines for restricted eating times and improved nutrition, and have lost 12 pounds in the past six months. Now I see that a new study declares that time-restricted eating doesn’t help with weight loss. So is it smart to restrict the time I eat or not? — David M., New York

A: Where to start? Both groups in the Chinese study published in the New England Journal of Medicine ate the same significantly reduced amount of calories daily. That means the researchers eliminated the possibility of discovering if time-restricted eating may, in real-life situations, reduce the amount of food people eat — and therefore lead to increased weight loss.

The study followed 139 obese people, and while everyone cut their calorie intake by 25 percent, the time-restricted group was allowed to eat only during an eight-hour window.

There is some indication that folks who usually have breakfast at 7 a.m. and dinner at 8 p.m. (not uncommon in the U.S.) may get more benefit from time-restricted eating than the folks in the study did, who in their pre-study lives ate during a 10.3-hour window.

The real conclusion to be drawn from this study is that combining time and calorie restrictions is safe and effective and it’s a helpful way to achieve a healthy weight.

Q: Why does my doctor say that exercise will help me avoid diabetes-related heart disease? I thought it just came along with Type 2 diabetes, and there was nothing I could do about it. — Richard F., Santa Fe, New Mexico

A: It’s true that heart disease is the No. 1 complication of diabetes. Excess blood glucose causes bodywide inflammation and damages the circulatory system. Elevated glucose levels also damage the nerves in your heart muscle, making heart failure an increased risk.

But you can do a lot to ease or prevent the damage. Exercise, with smart nutrition, is very effective in reducing not only your risk for heart disease but many other complications.

A new study in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology reveals that one moderately intense 45-minute exercise session encourages the growth of new, healthy endothelial cells lining the outer wall of blood vessels.

That, in turn, allows growth of new healthy blood vessels. These are needed because diabetes not only damages blood vessels, it inhibits the growth of new ones.