Temporal Eating Patterns and Eating Windows among Adults with Overweight or Obesity

Abstract

We aim to describe temporal eating patterns in a population of adults with overweight or obesity. In this cross-sectional analysis, data were combined from two separate pilot studies during which participants entered the timing of all eating occasions (>0 kcals) for 10-14 days. Data were aggregated to determine total eating occasions, local time of the first and last eating occasions, eating window, eating midpoint, and within-person variability of eating patterns. Eating patterns were compared between sexes, as well as between weekday and weekends. Participants (n = 85) had a median age of 56 ± 19 years, were mostly female (>70%), white (56.5%), and had a BMI of 31.8 ± 8.0 kg/m². The median eating window was 14 h 04 min [12 h 57 min-15 h 21 min], which was significantly shorter on the weekend compared to weekdays (p < 0.0001). Only 13.1% of participants had an eating window <12 h/d. Additionally, there was greater irregularity with the first eating occasion during the week when compared to the weekend (p = 0.0002). In conclusion, adults with overweight or obesity have prolonged eating windows (>14 h/d). Future trials should examine the contribution of a prolonged eating window on adiposity independent of energy intake.

Keywords: alternate day fasting; breakfast skipping; intermittent fasting; meal patterns; meal timing; time-restricted eating.

Figure 1

Percent of total eating occasions over 24 h. (a) % Total eating occasions in 30 min bins are represented by individual bars. A total of 97.3% of all eating occasions were logged between 04:00 and 23:59 (light grey bars), and 3.5% of all eating occasions were logged between 0:00 and 03:59 (dark grey bars). Peak logging of eating occasions occurred around 12:30. Aggregate data from the TEP and NY-TREAT studies were included. 95% Eating Window for Aggregated Data from Participants in the TEP and NY-TREAT studies. (b) The 95% eating duration shown in the order of the late (top) to early (bottom) nighttime fasting onset time. Each bar represents the 2.5–97.5 percentile for an individual. Solid black lines at 06:00 and 18:00 represent a reference 12 h 0 min eating window.