Exploring how pairing a nutrient-dense low-carb diet with a 10-hour eating window can enhance weight loss and reshape the gut microbiome in adults struggling with obesity. Study: Effects of healthy low-carbohydrate diet and time-restricted eating on weight and gut microbiome in adults with overweight or obesity: Feeding RCT. Image Credit: Boontoom Sae-Kor / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine , researchers assessed the effects of a 10-hour time-restricted eating (TRE) window and a nutritionally balanced, healthy, low-carbohydrate diet (HLCD) in obese/overweight adults.
Sustained Fat Mass Reduction: While most benefits returned to baseline by the 28-week follow-up, the HLCD group uniquely maintained a lower body fat percentage, highlighting its potential for longer-term body composition improvements. Moderate calorie restriction (CR) is recommended for individuals with obesity; however, the potential additional benefits of specific dietary patterns, when combined with CR, remain unclear. While a low-carbohydrate diet (LCD) has shown favorable impacts on weight loss and cardiometabolic biomarkers, most trials on LCD have mainly focused on the quantity of macronutrients, often neglecting dietary quality and nutrient diversity.
Further, high-quality evidence on the health effects of an HLCD, which emphasizes whole, minimally processed sources of carbohydrates, unsaturated fats, and plant protein, remains limited. TRE has also been linked .