• The 90/90 Intermittent Fast
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    Time-restricted feeding (TRF) plans are a type of intermittent fasting. Basically, you give yourself a window of time in which to eat. Most of these plans can be summed up as "skipping breakfast." So, if you have a snack before bed, sleep 8 hours, then fast until lunchtime, you've fasted for about 12 hours. Some plans have you fasting for 16 hours, which gives you an 8-hour eating window. This may reduce inflammation, "detoxify" the body, and lead to some fat loss, provided you don't go buckwild and eat nothing but syrup-soaked donuts during your eating window.
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    As long as you don't have disordered eating tendencies, it can work when done strategically for a short amount of time. That said, super strict TRF plans (4-hour eating windows) have been shown in two animal studies to backfire, leading to an increase in abdominal fat even though scale weight is lost.
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    Now some researchers are looking into a kinder, gentler version of TRF. During the 10-week study, participants were given some simple meal-timing guidelines: • Delay breakfast by 90 minutes. • Eat your last meal of the day 90 minutes earlier than normal. • Eat what you want in between.
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    So, their normal eating window was "closed" by 3 hours – 1.5 hours in the morning, 1.5 hours in the evening. Those following the 90/90 plan lost twice as much fat as the control group. This was just a pilot study, but here are some takeaways:
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    • The 90/90 group ate what they wanted, what science guys calls "free living" or having "ad libitum" food access, but they did naturally reduce their daily calories. This was partly because they didn't get to eat in the last 90 minutes before bed, a time when many fall prey to TV snacking. So we could say the results were just a matter of "less time to eat, fewer calories consumed.”
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    • More than half (57%) of the study participants said they wouldn't want to maintain this plan because it's a pain in the ass socially and tough to work into a normal schedule.
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    If the 90/90 plan fits your schedule, it may be worth trying. But many people just find it easier and more convenient to move this 3-hour fasting time to the end of the day.
  • Rona Antoni, Tracey M. Robertson, M. Denise Robertson, Jonathan D. Johnston. A pilot feasibility study exploring the effects of a moderate time-restricted feeding intervention on energy intake, adiposity and metabolic physiology in free-living human subjects. Journal of Nutritional Science, 2018
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    Kara L. Kliewer, et al. Short-term food restriction followed by controlled refeeding promotes gorging behavior, enhances fat deposition, and diminishes insulin sensitivity in mice. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 2015