Effects of a Daily Time-Restricted Feeding Protocol on Diet Quality

As a result of unhealthful lifestyle practices including nighttime ingestion and excess energy-dense food and beverage intake, college students are presenting with metabolic abnormalities and excess weight gain that increases their risk for chronic health conditions including cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes. Research has shown that prolonging nightly fasting intervals can result in health improvements in both animal models and human subjects. Time-restricted feeding (TRF), a form of intermittent fasting may offer an exciting, non-pharmacologic approach to improve cardiometabolic health in this population by restricting food intake to feeding windows that align with circadian biology.