If you're trying to maintain your weight or shed a few pounds, you might want to do more than swap burgers for salads: New research suggests it's not just what you eat but when you eat that can cause you to add inches to your waistline (or lose them, for that matter).
Salk Institute researchers looked at nearly 400 mice, feeding the lean and obese animals a variety of high-fat and high-sugar diets over the course of nine-, 12- and 15-hour periods (in other words, the mice didn't eat anything except for during that timeframe). Even though all of the mice consumed the same number of calories, the ones that noshed over longer periods of time gained more weight than those with time-restricted access to food.
Pretty crazy that fasting for a larger portion of the day seemed to impact how calories were stored or burned by their bodies. The results even indicate that maintaining a restricted diet may help prevent diabetes and high cholesterol.
When the researchers witnessed these results, they put obese mice to one more test: They placed them on the nine-hour time-restricted diet—and found that the mice shed an average of five percent of their body fat in just a few days, losing an average of 25 percent of their weight by the end of the 38-week study.
Granted, since this is an animal study, the results don't necessarily apply to humans. But back in 2007, a study conducted on humans showed similar results. In that one, a group of adults who ate within a restricted time period shed more fat and lost more pounds than the control group that consumed the same number of calories spread out over three meals a day.
So if you're looking to maintain—or even lose—weight, you might want to try eating within a nine- or 12-hour window. Even if you can't do it every day, plans like The 8-Hour Diet explain how you can see results from following a schedule like this for just a few days each week.
More from Women's Health:
3 Weight Loss Myths You Keep Falling For
The Weight Loss Strategy You’ve Never Thought Of—But Might Want to Try
20 Satisfying Lunches That Promote Weight Loss
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