16:8 time-restricted eating
Sixteen-hour daily fast with an eight-hour eating window. Tracked by window adherence rather than food content.
Food & fasting
Research records
Historical source snapshot. Not freshly verified, not a recommendation. Study findings, community accounts and app defaults are not interchangeable.
Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification. Clinical, regulatory, efficacy, safety and dose claims are not independently established by this review.
16:8 time-restricted eating
Sixteen-hour daily fast with an eight-hour eating window. Tracked by window adherence rather than food content.
Evidence category: Systematic review. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.
Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.
Time-restricted eating keeps food to a set window each day. A meta-analysis of eight randomised trials in adults with overweight or obesity found a mean weight loss of about 1.5 kg and lower fat mass, with no clear change in lean mass. It found an improvement in insulin resistance but no clear effect on other glucose or lipid measures. A larger meta-analysis of 23 randomised trials found small reductions in fasting glucose, insulin and insulin resistance. Effects are consistent but modest, and the trials are short.
Benefits reported in the imported source
- Pooled randomised trials in adults with overweight or obesity found modest weight and fat loss
- Insulin resistance improved, and a larger pooled analysis found small falls in fasting glucose and insulin
Risks and limits
- The weight effect is small, around one and a half kilograms, and lean mass did not change
- No clear effect on most glucose and lipid measures, and the trials are short
Source bottom line: Time-restricted eating produced small but consistent weight and insulin changes in short randomised trials.
Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.
Study protocols — reports, not instructions
adults with overweight or obesity, 464 people across 8 randomised trials
- Reported regimen
- 8-hour eating window with 16-hour fast, most trials using 12:00-20:00 or 08:00-16:00
- Duration
- 6 weeks to 12 months, most trials 8-12 weeks
- Reported outcome
- Weight fell 1.48 kg and fat mass about 1.1 kg versus control; lean mass, glucose, HbA1c and lipids did not change significantly.
- Source
- Is time-restricted eating (8/16) beneficial for body weight and metabolism of obese and overweight adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (availability check 2026-10-15: possible access barrier; not independently inspected; HTTP 200)
Claim provenance
evidence.json#/catalog:food-protocol:16-8/protocols/0
adults, 1,280 people across 23 randomised controlled trials
- Reported regimen
- 16-hour fast with an 8-hour daily eating window (16/8 time-restricted eating), compared with a control diet
- Duration
- varied by trial; subgroup analysis separated trials running longer than 6 months
- Reported outcome
- Small reductions in fasting glucose, insulin and HOMA-IR and a modest rise in HDL-C; no significant effect on the other lipid markers.
- Source
- Effect of 8-Hour Time-Restricted Eating (16/8 TRE) on Glucose Metabolism and Lipid Profile in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Wong et al. 2026)
Claim provenance
evidence.json#/catalog:food-protocol:16-8/protocols/1
Community and practice descriptions
Accounts of a practice are not evidence of safety or effectiveness. Words such as “standard”, “safe” or “recommended” describe the source account, not verified consensus or this wiki’s advice. Commercial and self-published citations are retained for traceability, not vendor endorsement or independent clinical corroboration.
Unverified imported account — Pros and Cons of Intermittent Fasting - Healthline
An imported authored paraphrase, not a quotation or a recommended protocol.
Review: unverified historical account. The imported wording is preserved for attribution; its full clinical, dosing, efficacy or consensus claims have not been independently established. Described practice context only; no clinical benefit or safety outcome is inferred.
Imported wording: A nutrition guide describes the popular 16:8 pattern as a daily 16-hour fast with meals in the remaining eight-hour window.
Historical research outcome: verified-description · 2026-10-06
Rechecked the previously published description against live source content. The live guide explicitly describes a popular daily 16-hour fast and eight-hour eating window.
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/6-ways-to-do-intermittent-fasting: verified-description — The live guide explicitly describes a popular daily 16-hour fast and eight-hour eating window.
Pharmacokinetic context
No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.
Source references
- Is time-restricted eating (8/16) beneficial for body weight and metabolism of obese and overweight adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (availability check 2026-10-15: possible access barrier; not independently inspected; HTTP 200)
- Effect of 8-Hour Time-Restricted Eating (16/8 TRE) on Glucose Metabolism and Lipid Profile in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (Wong et al. 2026)
- PubMed: time-restricted eating
Snapshot provenance
Source ID: catalog:food-protocol:16-8. Commit: adc7684614f9439b41d91a3312b62e7982c7e20e. Review state: historical-not-reverified. Authored links are retained separately from the canonical evidence links in the public data. App templates/defaults and rejected drafts are archived, not deployed.
Related entries and components
None listed.