NEJM: 70% full is the way to lose weight for Chinese people!

Excuse me, what should I eat during weight loss? I believe that as soon as this question came out, many people began to write their answer sheets frantically
.

 For example, what chicken breast, potato, and broccoli recipes are listed, and calorie counts for each meal to ensure adequate dietary nutrition and calorie restriction; implement intermittent fasting, you can go hungry all day, or be gentle and restrain yourself in No food for several hours,
etc.

 Anyway, when it comes to eating during weight loss, everyone always has a set of principles, and the favorites are full
.

As soon as it is done, the chain will fall off, and all the recipes will be used in one go
.

(No one to diss, Singularity Cake is a real feeling) Don't worry! Professor Zhang Huijie and his team from the Southern Hospital of Southern Medical University, this time, helped us make a subtraction for our weight loss diet plan - don't worry too much about when you should eat, as long as you can limit your calorie intake! Through a 1-year dietary intervention and follow-up of 139 obese participants, they found that, while restricting caloric intake (75% of normal calories), mealtimes were restricted to between 8:00 a.
m.
and 4:00 p.
m.
, the weight can be reduced by 8.
0kg; if only calorie intake is restricted, the weight can be reduced by 6.
3kg
.

but! The difference in weight loss effect brought about by these two programs is completely negligible and not statistically significant.
Either way can be used to eat, and it can also reduce the level of cardiovascular risk indicators [1]
.

The article was published today in the New England Journal of Medicine
.

 Yes, this time the queue is all from Guangzhou (you eat Fujianese), you can rest assured to take a small notebook and write it down - Chinese, applicable! Screenshot of the paper's homepage Keep your mouth shut and open your legs.
This is a famous saying in the weight loss industry
.

 This is because, compared with bariatric surgery, weight loss drugs and other treatment methods, proper management of diet and life>
.

Among them, calorie restriction is the leader in the field of dietary intervention research, and it is a dietary program that is highly sought after by the majority of people who lose weight [2,3]
.

 However, in recent years, in addition to calorie restriction, time-restricted eating has also begun to emerge
.

 Time-restricted eating is a very mild intermittent fasting mode.
It does not require careful calculation of food calories.
Just pay attention to the time of eating every day, and ensure that the eating time is controlled within 4-12 hours of the day, and fasting at other times
.

Because it is easy to implement, it can also effectively reduce weight, improve insulin resistance, relieve inflammation, etc.
[4], time-restricted diet is regarded by many people as a "replacement" for calorie restriction, or simply two methods together to achieve a weight loss effect.
up
.

 But so far, there is not enough strong clinical data to show what serious side effects of time-restricted diet will bring to the human body in the protracted battle of weight loss, and whether its weight loss effect can replace calorie restriction is also a question
.

 Therefore, Professor Zhang Huijie and his team conducted this study to compare the combination of time-restricted diet and calorie restriction with calorie restriction alone to find a more suitable diet plan for Chinese obese people
.

 They recruited a total of 139 obese participants (BMI: 28-45kg/m2) from Guangzhou, with an average age of 31.
9 years, weight of 88.
2kg, and a similar sex ratio
.

The participants were randomly assigned to time-restricted diet plus calorie restriction (n=69) or calorie restriction alone (n=70) to receive dietary intervention for up to 12 months
.

 In a caloric restriction regimen, men are required to consume 1500-1800 kcal per day and women 1200-1500 kcal per day (approximately a 25% reduction from baseline daily caloric intake)
.

Among them, 40%-55% of the calories come from carbohydrates, 15%-20% from protein, and 20%-30% from fat
.

What to eat can be based on the dietary guidelines provided by the researchers (partially refer to the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents [5])
.

 In the time-restricted eating program, participants in the group were required to eat only within 8 hours a day from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, and were only allowed to drink non-caloric beverages during the rest of the day
.

(The calorie restriction group alone does not have this requirement) At this point, Singularity Cake has quietly written down the professor's diet plan
.

 Differences between the two groups of dietary interventions Without further ado, whether it is necessary to add more time-restricted diets when implementing calorie restriction, let’s take a look at the effect of weight loss first
.

 After one year of dietary intervention, participants in the time-restricted diet plus calorie restriction group lost 8kg (95%CI -9.
6 to -6.
4) and the calorie restriction group alone lost 6.
3kg (95%CI -7.
8 to -4.
7) )
.

 Lost nearly 4 pounds of meat! No, don't get excited yet
.

The researchers found that the difference in weight change between the two groups was not significant (P=0.
11)
.

 In addition to the more obvious weight loss effect, the participants in the time-restricted diet + calorie restriction group and the calorie restriction group alone had waist circumference (-8.
8; -7.
6 cm), body fat percentage (-4.
3%; -3.
0 after 12 months of dietary intervention) %), BMI (-2.
9; -2.
3kg/m2), abdominal visceral fat area (-32.
9; -31.
3cm2) and other obesity-related indicators were significantly reduced
.

Although it appears that diets are better when the upper limit is increased, all health benefits were similar between the two groups, and the differences were not significant
.

Changes in body weight in the two dietary intervention groups In addition, the researchers also examined the effects of different dietary interventions on other cardiovascular risk factors, and the results remained the same
.

 After 12 months of dietary intervention, fasting blood glucose, 2-hour postprandial blood glucose levels, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were reduced in both groups, and time-restricted eating did not show significant additional benefits
.

 Changes in cardiovascular risk indicators in the two groups of dietary intervention participants It is worth mentioning that the researchers also helped us pay attention to the feasibility of these two dietary interventions
.

After all, "shut up" is easier said than done! In terms of compliance, after 1 year, 84.
0% of the people in the time-restricted diet + calorie restriction group persisted, and the calorie restriction group performed well, with 83.
8% persisting
.

 In terms of safety, no death or serious adverse events occurred during this period, and only mild adverse events such as fatigue, dizziness, headache, decreased appetite, abdominal pain, indigestion, and constipation were reported, and the incidence was similar between the two groups
.

In general, Professor Zhang Huijie and his team found that for Chinese obese people, sticking to a calorie-restricted diet for one year can reduce weight by up to 6.
3kg, BMI by 2.
3kg/m2, fasting blood sugar, LDL-C and other cardiovascular diseases.
The level of risk indicators also dropped significantly
.

 On this basis, if the eating time of the day is controlled within the time period of 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, the effect will be better, but if it is impossible or troublesome, it is not forced
.

Because the additional benefits of time-restricted eating were not significant
.

 In this regard, the researchers said that this shows that in the combination of time-restricted diet + calorie restriction, the latter is mainly "carrying the lead" and contributing the main benefit
.

In other words, in the dietary intervention during weight loss, the position of calorie restriction cannot be shaken; if the meal time can be strictly controlled, the effect will be better, but it is not a necessary choice
.

 In the end, Singularity Cake can't help but sigh, and is eager to lose weight, so there is no need to blindly add it! If you can find a way to lose weight that can be lazy, easy to implement and effective, why not do it~ Reference: [1] https:// GA, Frühbeck G, Ryan DH, Wilding JPH.
Management of obesity.
Lancet 2016;387:1947-56.
[3]Jensen MD, Ryan DH, Apovian CM, et al.
2013 AHA/ACC/TOS guideline for the management of overweight and obesity in adults: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines and the Obesity Society.
J Am Coll Cardiol 2014;63:2985-3023.
[4]Xie, Z.
, Sun, Y.
, Ye, Y.
et al.
Randomized controlled trial for time-restricted eating in healthy volunteers without obesity.
Nat Commun 13, 1003 (2022).
https://doi.
org/10.
1038/s41467-022-28662-5 [5]Chinese Nutrition Society.
Dietary guidelines for Chinese residents, 1st ed.
Beijing: People's Medical Publishing House, 2016.
Author | Zhang Aidi