Effects of healthy low-carbohydrate diet and time-restricted eating on weight and gut microbiome in adults with overweight or obesity: Feeding RCT
12-week two-by-two factorial feeding RCT with 28-week follow-up (n=96): under isocaloric restriction, authors report significant weight loss across arms (about 2.57–4.11 kg) with additional BMI lowering attributed to healthy low-carbohydrate diet (HLCD) and time-restricted eating beyond the shared caloric deficit; HLCD favored fat-mass loss whereas TRE associated with more lean-mass loss, with microbiome/metabolome shifts reported beyond restriction alone.
Design
- Population: adults with overweight/obesity (n = 96)
- Design: 2×2 factorial supervised isocaloric-restricted feeding — factors healthy low-carbohydrate diet (HLCD) and time-restricted eating (TRE) (12 weeks) plus 28-week post-intervention follow-up
- Registration: ChiCTR2200056363
Body-composition outcomes (abstract narrative)
- Weight: authors report significant loss ranging 2.57–4.11 kg across groups under shared caloric restriction
- Beyond restriction: abstract states HLCD and TRE each associated with additional BMI reduction
- Composition trade-offs: HLCD linked to extra fat-mass loss; TRE linked to greater lean-mass loss in the abstract framing
- Durability: abstract notes HLCD fat-mass benefit persisted into post-intervention follow-up
Microbiome / metabolomics (abstract)
HLCD associated with lower fecal branched-chain amino acids; TRE tended to increase probiotic taxa implicated in short-chain fatty acid synthesis—omics layer is exploratory relative to pragmatic public-health targets.
Evidence hygiene
- Supervised feeding efficacy and adherence differ from free-living app trials (Lowe 2020) and clinic counseling designs (Jamshed 2022).
- Read full text for exact arm contrasts and statistical models—abstract emphasizes factorial beyond-caloric-restriction signals.
Publication
Li L, Li R, Tian Q, et al. Cell Rep Med. 2024 Nov 19;5(11):101801. doi: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2024.101801. Epub 2024 Oct 24. PMID 39454570.
Outcomes
- Abstract: under isocaloric restriction, estimated weight loss ranged 2.57–4.11 kg across factorial arms at 12 weeks, with both HLCD and TRE associated with additional BMI reduction beyond shared restriction.
- Abstract: HLCD associated with greater fat-mass loss whereas TRE associated with greater lean-mass loss; HLCD fat-mass effect reported as sustained at week-40 follow-up in authors' summary.