LSU Pennington Biomedical Research Center will be hosting a research study dedicated to studying whether weight loss and intermittent fasting will improve longevity and health.
Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Women’s Health Lab Leanne Redman is one of the lead researchers for this study, which is sponsored by the National Institute of Aging.
“We are testing whether a traditional reduction of calories has different effects on body weight, metabolism and health compared to time restricted eating,” Redman said. “We are also examining an approach people find easier to stick with.”
According to Redman, the study stems from the idea of time restricted eating, which recommends that people should eat all calories within a defined period of time. According to Redman, this should begin with one to two hours after waking and end around eight hours later.
“This eating pattern does not require that you cut calories although the research to date has shown that people who follow a time restricted eating pattern may also experience some weight loss,” Redman said.
The benefits of this type of diet studied in the study include improved blood pressure, lower levels, lower blood sugar and insulin with improved glucose tolerance, Redman said.
“Not all people are the same and it is highly likely that we need different eating patterns to optimize our health,” Redman said. “Research is needed in controlled studies to understand the benefits of different approaches and in whom it works best.”
Director of the Ingestive Behavior, Weight Management and Health Promotion Laboratory Corby Martin said he hopes that the study will identify dietary strategies that will improve our day to day health and how we age.
Martin said that, during the study, they will be comparing the ability of four dietary approaches. These approaches will each be related to where the volunteers eat their usual diets. It will be conducted over a six month period, with two diets asking to eat less and the other two asking to follow a time-restricted diet.
“We know that we cannot attain the benefits of health diets unless we can follow them, and this study will help us learn ways in which we can better adhere to these dietary strategies,” Martin said.
An important factor of this study for the researchers is making the diets easier to follow, Martin said. To make this possible, the researchers are relying on smartphone apps and mobile health technology. They will also ask the volunteers about their perceptions of diets to learn about their previous experiences with them.
“Our current study will be pivotal in determining how best to conduct a long study,” Martin said.
Researchers at Pennington are also partnering with researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. UAB Associate Professor of Nutrition Sciences Courtney Peterson is considered by Martin to be a “time restricted eating expert and critical member of the team.”
UAB is one of two sitesenrolling participants, the other being LSU. The time restricted diets that are being tested are based on Peterson’s work. Volunteers will be recruited from both Baton Rouge and Birmingham.
Peterson is one of the first to conduct studies on time restricted diets. According to Peterson, her research had previously found that it can improve insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, oxidative stress, appetite and fat burning in humans.
“There are some challenges in that each university has different ways of doing things and different infrastructure,” said Peterson. “But mostly, it’s fun and exciting. We get to work together and synergize to do world-class research that will hopefully improve the health of millions of people.”
Volunteers for this study will be accepted for the next year and they will be participating in the study for around seven months. They are searching for subjects who are either normal weight or overweight, with BMIs between 22 to 30. The age range will be 25 to 45 years old, with the additional stipulation that subjects do not take any medications for chronic medical conditions.
“We are very excited about the current study,” Martin said. “We have known for almost a hundred years that limiting how much an organism or animal eats significantly extends their health span and life span.”
