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Randomized trial · measured the question itself

3-month trial in Chinese adults: 8-hour eating window cut weight more than low-carb alone

He and colleagues · Cell reports. Medicine · 2022

Original title: Time-restricted eating with or without low-carbohydrate diet reduces visceral fat and improves metabolic syndrome: A randomized trial.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to benefit

All three plans cut body weight vs baseline. Compared with the low-carb diet, eating in 8 hours and the combination further cut body weight and belly fat. No numbers given in abstract.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
adults with metabolic syndrome in China
What was tested
8-hour eating window, low-carb diet, or both, for 3 months
What it measured
The question itself: weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting
How long
12 weeks
Trial registration
NCT04475822
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
Cell reports. Medicine, 2022
Source
PubMed record 36220069. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • •The abstract does not say how many people took part.
  • •Lasted 12 weeks.
  • ✓Measured the question itself: weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting.
  • ✓No competing interests declared.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: weight loss

    9

    5 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    8

    4 benefit, 3 mixed, 1 no difference

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    1

    1 benefit

  4. Population studies

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does intermittent fasting help with weight loss?”

Yes, but about like calorie cutting.

Confidence: moderate. Based on 26 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 8 papers on the same step: 4 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference. This one found benefit.

  • Counted on the ladder, but not quoted in the page’s main findings.

Other papers on the same step

See all 26 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The two reads agreed on every checked field. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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