Maintaining natural feeding rhythms with time-restricted feeding (TRF), without altering nutritional intake, prevents and reverses diet-induced obesity (DIO) and its associated metabolic disorders in mice. TRF has a direct effect on animal adiposity, causes an alteration of adipokine signaling, and diminishes white adipose tissue inflammation. Many genes involved in lipid metabolism are normally circadian, but their expression is perturbed with DIO; TRF restores their cyclical expression. One mechanism through which TRF could affect host metabolism is by altering the gut microbiome. Changes in the gut microbiome are coupled with an altered stool bile acid profile. Hence, TRF could affect lipid metabolism by altering bile acid signaling. TRF introduces many new possibilities in treating obesity and its associated metabolic disorders. However, further studies are needed to show whether these physiological findings in mice translate to humans.
Keywords: circadian rhythm; diabesity; diabetes; dyslipidemia; dysmetabolism; fasting; metabolism; steatohepatitis; steatosis.