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Scientists are seeing positive results from a type of eating strategy that could be another weight loss technique. The weight loss technique involves the early time-restricted feeding (eTRF) that promises to help burn body fat by shortening the window of time when people would eat.

The study conducted by researchers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham suggests that following the early time-restricted feeding could help people lose weight as it lessens hunger swings and improves fat burning in the body. This is the first time this weight loss technique was tested on human participants.

The eTRF is a meal strategy where people are only allowed to eat in a shorter period of time. A typical American usually eats between the times of 8 am to 8 pm. With eTRF, the eating time is shortened from 8 am to 2 pm. The research did not indicate restriction when it comes to the type of food and drink allowed to be consumed during the meal strategy.

According to the researchers who presented their study at The Obesity Society Annual Meeting at Obesity Week 2016, the longer fasting time, eighteen hours, helped even out appetite levels throughout the day. This result suggests the promising potential of eTRF for weight loss.

In the first ever human testing of the eTRF, the researchers observed eleven male and female participants with excess body weight. The participants followed the eTRF schedule for four days and their normal eating schedule for another four days and ate the same number of calories for both eating strategies.

Although the result of the human testing showed that eTRF had no impact on the number of calories burned, it did reduce the hunger swings of the participants. The participants' body also showed signs of an increase of body fat burning several hours into the night. The eTRF also helped body's ability to switch between burning fats and burning carbohydrates, in a process called metabolic flexibility, improve.

The researchers see the potential of the early time-restricted feeding as a weight loss technique. They acknowledge that further study is needed to prove the weight loss potential of eTRF and the testing of the meal strategy with a larger set of human participants. The researchers are optimistic about the eTRF as a study conducted on rodents was able to show it helped burn more body of the test subjects.