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Pooled review (meta-analysis)

Pooled review of 29 studies: time restricted eating lowered weight by 1.37 kg

Liu and colleagues · JAMA network open · 2024

Original title: Meal Timing and Anthropometric and Metabolic Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

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

Time restricted eating lowered weight vs control (-1.37 kg; 95% CI, -1.99 to -0.75 kg). Authors call the effect small and of uncertain clinical importance, with high risk of bias.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Pooled review (meta-analysis)
Who or what was studied
29 studies, 2,485 people · adults, mean BMI 33, 69% women
What was tested
time restricted eating, fewer meals or earlier calories for 12 weeks or more, vs usual care or nutrition advice
What it measured
The question itself: weight loss, compared with ordinary calorie cutting
How long
12 weeks
Who has a stake
No stake declared
No competing interests declared.
Journal
JAMA network open, 2024
Source
PubMed record 39485353. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Pools the results of 29 studies with 2,485 people.
  • •A pooled review is only as strong as the studies it pools.
  • ✓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

This paper is not on the ladder. It is a pooled review (meta-analysis), and reviews and opinion pieces discuss studies that are already counted on the steps below.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: weight loss

    9

    5 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

  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

Other reviews on this question

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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