Enhancing weight loss and heart health

A recent study highlights the potential benefits of a unique approach to weight loss and heart health: combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training. This study, published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, sheds light on how these two lifestyle changes, when paired together, may offer greater improvements in body composition and cardiometabolic health than either strategy alone. Time-restricted eating involves limiting your eating window to a specific time period during the day, whereas high-intensity functional training is a type of exercise that combines intense cardio and strength workouts.

In this study, researchers looked at 64 women with obesity and divided them into three groups: one group followed time-restricted eating only, another did high-intensity functional training only, and the third group combined both approaches. The time-restricted eating group could only eat between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm, while the exercise groups worked out three days a week with a trainer.

After 12 weeks, all three groups had lost weight and reduced their waist and hip size. They also saw improvements in their cholesterol, blood sugar, and lipid levels, which are important for heart health.

However, the group that combined both time-restricted eating and exercise showed even better results. They not only lost more weight but also had improvements in muscle mass and blood pressure compared to the other groups.

The researchers point out that this study is small, and it is hard to tell exactly how much each lifestyle change contributed to the results. But combining time-restricted eating with high-intensity functional training seems promising for improving body composition and heart health.

In simple terms, if you are looking to lose weight and improve your heart health, combining a restricted eating schedule with intense workouts could be a winning combination.