An Associate Professor at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) has come up with what she believes is the best way to burn fat quicker.
Courtney Peterson, a professor in the Nutritional Sciences Department at UAB, discovered a diet plan back in 2017 in that focused not necessarily on what people were eating, but when they were eating.
The diet called for three meals per day, but all within a 6-hour time period of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., a technique referred to as “time-restricted feeding.” Food usually takes between three and five hours to digest. The time-restricted diet allows for the food to be metabolized by bedtime.
Peterson followed 11 overweight men and women over eight total days. Four of the days involved an eating schedule of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., while the other four days had a window of 12 hours.
The men and women who were tested were only given a certain window to consume food, they were not limited when it came to what they were eating. After the 2 p.m. timestamp, participants were only allowed to have water and black coffee until the next morning.
While watching everything the participants consumed over the time period, Peterson found that their daily hunger swings were reduced and metabolic flexibility increased. The results also showed a lower blood pressure and better insulin processing, though the experiment still does not come without question from fellow nutritionists.
Dr. Amy Riggs is one of those who question it. Riggs, a professor at Georgia Southern University. Her interests and past work include eating disorders and weight management. She believes that everyone’s body reacts differently to different tactics.
“Eleven people is not enough for me to trust this experiment to be a valid, reliable study,” said Riggs. We are all individuals. What works for your friend may not work for you.”
Riggs believes that social media also plays a role in how people perceive weight loss, as it can send negative signals and can make people unhappy with their look. “If we would listen to our bodies instead of social media, then we would be much happier,” she says. “If we are miserable in the way that we are dieting, then it is not sustainable.”
Riggs is not the only nutritionist who had doubts with this study. Maddie Devries also had very strong feelings about Paterson’s study. Devries, a Georgia Southern alum, has her master’s degree in Kinesiology and has studied dieting for four years
“Not eating for 18 hours out of the day is incredibly unhealthy and she is only losing fat because she is not getting a healthy number of calories,” said Devries.
For years, doctors have used the number on the scale as well as body mass index (BMI) to determine if someone is healthy or obese. Over the years, they have become more educated and have found different ways to determine health.
Georgia Southern senior, Orion Caldwell was 230 pounds in his freshman year at Georgia Southern in 2017. He began working out and lost 30 pounds in one year, though he did not change much about his diet.
“I lost most of my weight through caloric deficit and by working out,” said Caldwell. “I was eating the same thing that I was eating before I lost the weight. I just started eating slower, which made me full quicker.”
It takes the body 10 to 30 minutes to
determine whether or not the stomach is full. Tips from nutrition experts
include eating slower and focusing on the food while chewing it. Studies show
that watching TV or listening to music are a few ways that distract someone as
they are eating.
As a result, they are not processing what they are eating and do not feel full, which makes them intake more calories.
This study has not shown whether or not the
time-restricted fasting will work long term. The experts interviewed all agree
that a larger study will need to be conducted to prove the validity of Paterson’s
work.