Time Restricted Eating and Meal Frequency for Appetite Control

Obesity is one of the largest worldwide health problems. There are increasing rates of overweight and obesity, and in recent years, worldwide the percentage of overweight and obesity among adults now exceeds 1.9 billion and 650 million, respectively. Overweight and obesity are associated with an increase risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D), coronary heart disease, hypertension and other non-communicable diseases. There are multiple nutritional causes for obesity, including both the type and amount of food consumed. Other non-nutritional factors can be just as important to influence body mass, such as the number of meals eaten, which is termed meal frequency. The changing food environment influences calorie consumption, such as increased food variety, increased availability and food processing, a nocturnal lifestyle that disrupts the circadian clock, meal timing and frequency, irregular meal patterns, and prolonged duration of eating during the day. This results in increased food and beverage consumption throughout the day. Meal frequency is commonly defined as, 'the number of foods or drinks a person consumes in one day. Meals and snacks are less clearly defined. Meal is defined as any food providing≥ 50 kcal and separated by more than one hour. In most cultures, the name meal is given to the three eating episodes in a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner; or breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper, and dinner. In this study, the investigators will use the definition of "breakfast, brunch, lunch, supper, and dinner", but it will be on restricted time: 10 hours eating and 14 hours fasting (from 7:00 to 17:00) and one type of diet (high protein diet). Other researchers have defined meals by the time of the day, such as early and late breakfast, lunch and dinner intake. These definitions differ according to culture. Other researchers have defined meals based on timing, such as (6:00 am -10:00 am), (12:00 pm - 3:00 pm), and (6:00 pm - 9:00 pm). Some studies have highlighted that there