The Fasting and Shifted Timing (FAST) of Eating Study

NCT ID: NCT04527952

Last Updated: 2021-04-28

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 28 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-06-19
• Study Completion Date: 2020-08-01

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to assess peoples' satisfaction with their diet based on adhering to three different meal-timing protocols for one week each: (1) Time-restricted feeding (TRF); (2) Intermittent fasting (IF); and (3) Alternate day fasting (ADF). The overall goal of this study is to determine if people would find it easy or difficult to follow these diet protocols for the purpose of weight management.

Detailed Description

Fasting and time-restricted feeding (TRF) have become increasingly popular in nutrition research due to the potential health benefits they may provide. Several animal studies, and more recently some human studies, have indicated regular meal-timing (i.e. eating mostly in the day) or fasting have been beneficial for controlling weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and insulin sensitivity.

These types of eating patterns may offer the same "anti-aging" health benefits as traditional caloric restriction (i.e. consistent and routine adherence to a very low-calorie diet).While caloric restriction is considered the gold standard for weight management, weight regain often limits the long-term effectiveness of this approach. People often experience increases in hunger, which make it difficult to sustain this type of behavior.Therefore, researchers are turning to these dietary approaches as alternatives to low-calorie diets in an effort to obtain the same benefits, but with less burden on participants.

However, it is not clear if the adherence to these types of diet protocols are any better than a low-calorie diet. Would people be more satisfied with meal-timing or fasting over a traditional very low-calorie diet? That is the main research question of this study.

Conditions

Overweight and Obesity

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Time-restricted feeding (TRF)

Participants will eat the majority of their calories in the day. More specifically participants will consume 70% of their total calories before 5 pm and the remaining 30% after 5 pm.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Online handouts describing how to follow each diet for 1 week each

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive handouts via email about how to follow each diet

Intermittent fasting (IF)

This involves eating all of one's meals within a specific time (e.g. 8 hours) frame and fasting for the remaining hours (16 hours) in a day.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Online handouts describing how to follow each diet for 1 week each

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive handouts via email about how to follow each diet

Alternate day fasting (ADF)

This involves complete fasting (i.e. no food or caloric containing beverages, only water consumption) for roughly an entire 36-hour period, followed by an ad libitum feeding day.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Online handouts describing how to follow each diet for 1 week each

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive handouts via email about how to follow each diet

Interventions

Online handouts describing how to follow each diet for 1 week each

Participants will receive handouts via email about how to follow each diet

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Be 18 years or older.
• Have a BMI between 25 - 49.9 kg/m2.
• Have a scale at home, or some way of weighing yourself regularly, so that you can report your body weight to the research staff.
• Be able to check emails regularly, because all of the surveys need to be completed online.

Exclusion Criteria

• NOT be already practicing any of these fasting approaches.
• NOT currently diagnosed with diabetes.
• NOT taking any appetite suppressants or prescription weight loss medications.
• NOT planning on getting pregnant within the next 6 weeks.
• Do NOT currently have any eating disorders.
• Have NOT lost or gained a significant amount of weight (i.e. 10 pounds or more) within the last 6 months.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of South Carolina

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Brie Turner-McGrievy

Associate Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of South Carolina

Locations

University of South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Countries

United States

References

Turner-McGrievy GM, Wirth MD, Bernhart JA, Aydin H. The Fasting and Shifted Timing (FAST) of Eating Study: A pilot feasibility randomized crossover intervention assessing the acceptability of three different fasting diet approaches. Appetite. 2022 Sep 1;176:106135. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2022.106135. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 35716852 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

Pro00089911

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id