The Impact of Time Restricted Eating on Type 2 Diabetes Study

Early Time Restricted Eating (eTRE) is a meal timing strategy that restricts the daily eating window to the first 6-8 waking hours of the day, while extending the fasting window between the final meal of the day and the first meal the following morning.

There is an increasing body of evidence that circadian misalignment caused by changes in sleeping and eating behaviors is a significant contributor to obesity and cardiometabolic disease, and late-night eating behaviors are associated with obesity, weight loss inhibition, and various cardiovascular disease risk factors. While the mechanisms underlying these correlations are not well understood, these effects are most likely due to suboptimal timing of caloric intake against diurnal variations in hormone and metabolite activity. Therefore, eTRE shows great promise as a novel intervention for addressing obesity and related cardiovascular outcomes. In support of this, recent studies have demonstrated weight-independent benefits of eTRE on measures of insulin sensitivity and cardiac risk. However, studies to date have primarily focused on metabolically healthy or prediabetic populations and the effect of this dietary practice on individuals with type 2 diabetes has not yet been evaluated.

To this end, the investigators propose to conduct a randomized isocaloric 15-day crossover feeding trial in the outpatient unit at The Rockefeller University Hospital (RUH) comparing an eTRE intervention (feeding window 8 AM-4 PM; 80% of calories consumed prior to 2 PM; remaining 20% to be consumed by 4 PM) to a Usual Feeding Pattern (UFP) (50% of calories consumed after 4 PM) among 10 persons with type 2 diabetes and obesity to determine effects on glycemic variation and various time-in-range metrics. The primary hypothesis of this study is that restriction of caloric intake to earlier in the day will have metabolic benefits in terms of glycemic variation and time in hyperglycemia relative to consuming the majority of calories later in the day, as in the control arm. Additionally, the investigators anticipate no increase in hypoglycemia in the eTRE arm compared to the UPF control arm. This feeding study provides a unique opportunity to study the weight-independent effects of eTRE on a population that has frequently been excluded from dietary studies in this area, yet for whom diet and lifestyle modifications are foundational components of treatment. Additionally, the proposed work will complement our recent study performed at Rockefeller University Hospital (RUH), "The Time-Restricted-Feeding Effects on Inflammation and Obesity" (TRIO) Study, which utilized a similar study design to show the weight-independent glycemic benefits of eTRE in individuals with prediabetes and obesity.

The investigators propose to obtain glucometric data including glycemic variation and various time in range metrics by Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM), circulating advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), and targeted plasma metabolomic profiles as surrogate measures of overall dysglycemia affected by the eTRE intervention in the RUH metabolic study.

The collaborative research proposed between RUH and New York University (NYU) Obesity Center in this application will take advantage of the expertise of both centers and advance the science of obesity and cardiovascular disease. Members of our team have extensive experience in clinical dietary studies and advanced glucometric analysis. The investigators will be able to evaluate the effectiveness of eTRE as a weight-independent therapeutic strategy for type 2 diabetes management and identify the metabolic pathways invoked, thereby synergistically expanding the work of each institution.