By: Ethan Pi

Nearly 42% of Americans 20 and older are obese, and another 32% are overweight. These people nationwide and worldwide are more likely to develop severe health conditions and end up paying up more than $2,500 for medical care in the long term, not to mention other doctoral services. However, a secret food trick that not a lot of people know about can work magic to prevent this.

Annals of Internal Medicine conducted a yearlong study and found that people who ate between noon and 8pm developed a significant and stunning weight loss, comparable to people who cut their consumed calorie amounts by 25%. Dieters in both groups lost about 4% of their body weight after a year, while people who didn’t manage to do either of the resolutions suffered a 1% gain in body weight over the same 12-month course.

However, does this intermittent fasting reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes faster than calorie restriction would? According to the National Institute of Diabetes and National Institutes of Health, this new process can be more effective in not only mitigating diabetes risk but also in reducing the risk and effects of digestive and kidney diseases. In addition, it reduces the amount of insulin our body produces, which is important because insulin plays a major role in storing fat.

And the truth is, this TRE (or time-restricted eating) routine has been tested on obese people, and the results were quite shocking. Krista Varady, a nutrition researcher at the University of Illinois, recruited 90 obese people and assigned them into one of three groups. The first group was assigned to only eat between noon and 8pm. The second group was asked to reduce their intake of calories by 25%, which was about 500 calories on average. The third group was asked to do nothing differently.

After about a year, people in the TRE group (or the first group) lost an average of 7.7 pounds. The people in the second group were, on average, 9.5 pounds lighter than before they started. Although the people in the first group had lost less of their body fat than the people in the second group, the difference wasn’t significant, and it proved how influential the new change could be.

Compressing your eating day may not sound fun, but it has been scientifically proven to be a benefit for obesity, health, and the prevention of diseases. It is even seen as a solution for the future for crying out loud. Whether it is a big or small modification, this secret food “trick” takes success a step further every time we sit down at the kitchen table.