Researchers at NUTRIM, the Maastricht University School for Nutrition and Translational Studies in Metabolism, explored whether type 2 diabetes can be influenced by adjusting meal timing rather than altering diet. In their study, participants shortened their eating window to up to 10 hours per day. The researchers report the findings in a recent publication focused on metabolic health.
Across Western nations, daily food intake often spans 14 hours or more, leaving little to no fasting during the night. This pattern, combined with other lifestyle factors, is linked to a rising incidence of type 2 diabetes, now one of the most prevalent metabolic disorders worldwide. While shorter eating windows have previously shown promise for metabolic health in overweight and obese individuals, those prior trials used very tight, 6 to 8 hour eating periods under controlled conditions that are tough to replicate in everyday life.
In the current trial, 14 adults with type 2 diabetes, aged 50 to 75, participated in a three week protocol. The group consisted of seven men and seven women, with an average age of 67.5 years and a body mass index of at least 25 kg per square meter. Participants wore continuous glucose monitoring devices that tracked blood sugar every 15 minutes, ensuring precise metabolic readings. They were asked to keep their usual sleep schedules, physical activity, and weight, avoiding any intentional changes to these factors during the study.
After switching to a 10 hour eating window, the range of times during which glucose levels stayed within a normal range broadened, particularly between noon and mid-afternoon. Fasting glucose readings exhibited meaningful reductions, although the study did not observe a change in insulin sensitivity in this short duration.
The authors call for larger, longer trials to validate these observations and to assess how different diabetes medications might interact with time-restricted eating. They emphasize the need to explore whether longer study durations or diverse participant groups produce similar results and how such dietary timing strategies could be integrated with existing diabetes treatments to optimize blood sugar control.