Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss

Design

• Population: adults with obesity (n = 139 randomized; 118 completed 12-month visit)
• Arms: time-restricted eating (8:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.) + calorie restriction vs daily calorie restriction alone (same energy targets: 1500–1800 kcal/d men; 1200–1500 kcal/d women)
• Primary endpoint: between-group difference in body-weight change from baseline at 12 months

Headline outcomes (intention-to-treat narrative; abstract)

• Weight change: −8.0 kg (95% CI −9.6 to −6.4) in the TRE + CR group vs −6.3 kg (95% CI −7.8 to −4.7) in the daily CR group
• Between-group difference: −1.8 kg (95% CI −4.0 to 0.4; P = 0.11) — not statistically significant
• Secondary body composition / metabolic markers: directions consistent with the primary null (no material between-group separation in abstract summary)
• Adverse events: no major imbalance reported in abstract framing

Evidence hygiene

• Both arms received active calorie targets—this trial tests whether the eating window adds loss beyond matched energy prescription, not ad libitum TRE vs unstructured eating.
• Pair with early TRE + energy restriction trials that reported smaller absolute losses but statistically significant window effects (Jamshed et al. 2022, PMID 35939311) and with supervised factorial feeding work (Li et al. 2024, PMID 39454570) before collapsing all “TRE” labels into one story.

Publication

Liu D, Huang Y, Huang C, et al. N Engl J Med. 2022 Apr 21;386(16):1495-1504. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2114833. PMID 35443107. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03745612.