18:6 time-restricted eating

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Publication suitability · 2026-10-15: Historical reference only; not a clinical verification.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.

18:6 time-restricted eating

Eighteen-hour fast with a six-hour eating window. A tighter variant of 16:8.

Evidence category: Reference only. This describes the source category, not approval or certainty.

Regulatory statement in source: Not separately recorded; do not infer approval from the evidence category.

This is a tighter form of time-restricted eating, with a long fast and a short eating window. A 2025 scoping review of 81 human studies of time-restricted eating reports better body composition, insulin sensitivity, lipids and inflammation, while noting that people often eat less overall at the same time. A randomised trial in people with type 2 diabetes is testing this pattern over a year, but it is a published protocol with no results yet. No linked study reports outcomes for this specific window.

Benefits reported in the imported source

• A review of 81 studies of time-restricted eating reports better body composition and insulin sensitivity.
• The same review reports better lipids and lower inflammation.

Risks and limits

• No linked study reports outcomes for this specific eating window.
• People often ate less overall, so benefits may come from that rather than timing.
• The trial in type 2 diabetes is a published protocol with no results yet.

Source bottom line: Time-restricted eating looks favourable in review, but this tighter window has no results of its own here.

Uncertainty: Reference information only. Not medical advice.

Study protocols — reports, not instructions

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.

Pharmacokinetic context

No half-life recorded in this source snapshot. No value has been inferred.

Source references

• Time-Restricted Eating in Metabolic and Clinical Health: a Current Evidence and Mechanistic Insights (Minari 2026)
• Time Restricted EAting for Type 2 diabetes and MEtabolic health: The TEA TIME trial study protocol (Retnakaran et al. 2026)
• PubMed: time-restricted eating