# TREAT (Time Restricted EATing) to improve cardiometabolic health

> **NIH NIH R01** · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2020 · $768,147

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
American adults have a high prevalence of overweight, obesity and prediabetes. Small weight loss delays the
progression to type 2 diabetes and decrease cardiovascular risk, yet adherence to long-term calorie restriction
is difficult to sustain. There is an urgency to find effective, easy-to-implement and sustain, and affordable life
style interventions. Restricting the food intake interval, or time restricted eating (TRE) has been shown in
small-scale pilot studies to result in weight loss and improve metabolism, while being less challenging than
calorie count. We propose to rigorously assess the efficacy of TRE, administered via a smartphone application,
on weight loss and decreased cardiovascular risk. To achieve this goal, metabolically unhealthy mid-life adults
with overweight or obesity who habitually eat for more than 14h/day, will be randomized to a restricted eating
window to 10h/d (TRE) or to their habitual eating window (≥ 14h, HABIT), and followed up to 12 months.
Ambulatory measures of food intake, sleep, physical activity and glucose, and in-patient 24-h well-controlled
studies will be done to determine the effect of TRE versus habitual eating duration (HABIT), as well as the
mediators of these effects. Hypotheses: 1) TRE vs. HABIT will result in decreased fat mass, measured by
quantitative magnetic resonance, and effect mediated via decreased daily total energy intake, measured by
double labeled water; 2) TRE vs. HABIT will result in lower insulin resistance, lower glycemia and shift in fuel
utilization preferentially to lipid mobilization; 2) Adherence to TRE (measured by usage of the app and
reduction of the eating window), and self-efficacy will associate with the short-term effect (3 months) and the
long-term sustainability (12 months) of TRE on fat mass loss. Results from this study will provide important
insights into understanding the physiological and molecular interactions between restricting daily eating interval
and metabolic function, and could provide evidence for using TRE interventions to improve metabolic health
and decrease cardiovascular risk in the large number of mid-life and older Americans in great need of life style
intervention.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10048822
- **Project number:** 1R01AG065569-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** BLANDINE B LAFERRERE
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $768,147
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10048822

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10048822, TREAT (Time Restricted EATing) to improve cardiometabolic health (1R01AG065569-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10048822. Licensed CC0.

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