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New research has found that time-restricted eating, a form of intermittent fasting, may help you lose weight by reducing your appetite.

In a small study published yesterday in the Obesity journal, researchers found that eating over a six-hour period and having the last meal of the day at 2pm, made respondents less hungry and helped them to burn more fat.

Prior research suggested fasting helps people to lose weight by burning more calories, but this report suggests time restricted eating mainly works by helping people to eat less.

"Coordinating meals with circadian rhythms, or your body's internal clock, may be a powerful strategy for reducing appetite and improving metabolic health," said study author Eric Ravussin, associate executive director for clinical science at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

Lead study author Courtney Peterson, assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, added: "We suspect that a majority of people may find meal timing strategies helpful for losing weight or to maintain their weight since these strategies naturally appear to curb appetite, which may help people eat less."

In the experiment, 11 respondents tried two different eating strategies over four-day periods. In one they ate over a six-hour period, with breakfast at 8am and dinner at 2pm, thus creating an 18-hour fasting window. In the other they were instructed to eat three meals during a 12-hour period with breakfast at 8am and dinner at 8pm.

On the fourth day the researchers measured the metabolism of participants by placing them in a respiratory chamber where they measured how many calories, carbs, fat and protein were burned. They also measured their appetite levels every three hours, as well as hunger hormones (ghrelin) in the morning and evening.

The results suggest that the group eating dinner at 2pm had lower levels of ghrelin. They also found the eating strategy helped them to switch between burning carbohydrates for energy to burning fat for energy, though it "did not significantly affect how many calories participants burned."

The authors note the tiny sample and short period of the trial mean more research is needed into the potential benefits of intermittent fasting.

Eating for a period of only six hours over the course of the day is arguably an extreme version of intermittent fasting. The 16:8, where you have a 16-hour fasting period and eight-hour window for eating, is a popular method, while Dr Michael Mosley, author of the 5:2 and Fast: 800 eating regimes, argues the 14:10 is more sustainable.

Max Lowery, personal trainer and intermittent fasting champion, who is the author of The 2 Meal Day fasting method, says he believes fasting can transform your relationship with food for the better.

"Like the study suggests, hunger hormones normalise when you are on an intermittent fasting schedule. This, I believe, is because it’s a more natural way of eating. You improve metabolic flexibility by being able to switch between carb burning and fat burning – a key component in long term metabolic health," he says.

While initially you need to be aware of time periods, the goal is eventually to stop focusing on clock watching and fasting windows and to simple learn to eat when you're actually hungry, he adds

"Some days this might be after 12 hours, some days this might not be until 20 hours. It depends on many variables like sleep, activity levels and calorie intake over the week."

He adds that ultimately the end goal should be a move towards intuitive eating. "However, in my opinion the only way you can ever intuitively eat is if you incorporate intermittent fasting which will reset your hunger hormones and make you feel less hungry overall," he says.

If you're curious about introducing intermittent fasting into your regime, Lowery shared five first steps below:

1. First, eliminate snacking in between meals by eating three square meals a day. Once you are used to this, move onto step 2.

2. Finish consuming any calories by 8pm (unless you are out for a social occasion).

3. Try waiting an hour to break your fast in the morning.

4. Try extending your overnight fast to 12 hours.

5. If the first four steps go well, try upping your overnight fast to 14-16 hours.