While making healthful lifestyle changes in diet and exercise are well-known ways to promote weight loss and improve cardiometabolic health, finding the right combination of lifestyle changes to produce sustainable results can be challenging for anyone. However, previous research indicates that time-restricted eating and high-intensity functional training may be beneficial and easier for people to commit to for the long term.
This study investigated the impacts of time-restricted eating which limits when a person eats but not what a person eats, and high-intensity functional training that combines intense aerobic and resistance exercise on body composition and markers of cardiometabolic health such as lipid levels, cholesterol, and blood glucose among 64 women with obesity for 12 weeks.
The women were placed into one of three groups: time-restricted eating only (diet), high-intensity functional training only (exercise), or time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training (diet and exercise). The time-restricting eating plan allowed the participants to eat within the eating window between 8 AM and 4 PM, and the exercise regimen required working out three days a week with an instructor.
According to the researchers, after 12 weeks all of the groups experienced significant weight loss and decreases in both waist and hip circumference as well as favorable changes in both lipid and glucose levels. However, some differences were seen between the groups such as fat-free muscle mass and blood pressure improved in the diet and exercise groups but did not change in the diet-only group. Additionally, those in the combined group generally experienced more profound changes in their body composition and cardiometabolic parameters than the other groups.
Although the study group was all women and relatively small over a short period of time, the authors Ranya Ameur and Rami Maaloul note that combining high-intensity functional training with time-restricted eating shows promise in improving body composition and cardiometabolic health.
“Combining time-restricted eating with High-Intensity Functional Training is a promising strategy to improve body composition and cardiometabolic health,” concluded the authors.
As with anything you read on the internet, this article should not be construed as medical advice; please talk to your doctor or primary care provider before changing your wellness routine. This article is not intended to provide a medical diagnosis, recommendation, treatment, or endorsement. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
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