By: Sophie Ma

Are you counting your calories and being particular about your food choices in hopes of losing weight? In a recent year-long study, people who ate the same foods between 12am and 8pm have achieved very similar weight loss than that of people controlling their calorie consumption.

TRE, or Time Restricted Eating, is very similar to intermittent fasting, and is a very simple diet. For people who need a simple and easy to commit to diet, TRE is highly recommended.

TRE has results very similar to counting your calories, as Krista Varady, nutrition researcher from the University of Illinois Chicago, and her colleagues proved. They took 90 obese people, 80% women and the rest men, and assigned them to one of three groups.

The first group was asked to eat only between noon and 8pm. The second group was asked to lessen their calorie consumption by 25%, an average of 500 fewer calories. The third group was told to continue their usual eating and exercise routine, as a control group.

Three months later, the TRE group lost 8.8 pounds average and the calorie reducing group lost an average of 11.2 pounds.

After this, the two groups changed to a weight maintenance rather than weight loss approach. For the TRE group, they increased their eating time to 10am to 8pm. The calorie counting group enlarged their calorie intake.

In the end, the TRE group maintained 7.7 pounds of their weight loss, whereas the calorie reducing group kept 9.5 pounds of their weight loss. The difference between the two groups wasn’t statistically important enough, however. The control group didn’t lose any weight, and even gained weight.

As a result, TRE is a much simpler way of losing weight and the results are very similar to controlling your calorie consumption. These are both good methods for the 42% of Americans who try to lose weight each year. 56% percent of them being women and 42% of them are men.

Both methods of weight loss can result in positive results..

“It is a simple diet,” Varody said, “…You just have to decide on a time window and stick to it for as long as you can.”