Mice under Caloric Restriction Self-Impose a Temporal Restriction of Food Intake as Revealed by an Automated Feeder System.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Preclinical animal study with no human data
PubMed 28683292 · doi:10.1016/j.cmet.2017.06.007
What was done
Researchers developed an automated feeder system to regulate the timing, amount, and duration of food availability while tracking feeding behavior and voluntary wheel-running activity in mice. Using this automated platform, mice were subjected to caloric restriction or temporal restriction feeding protocols.
What was found
The abstract reports no numerical values or sample sizes. Qualitatively, mice placed under caloric restriction self-imposed temporal fasting by consolidating their food intake into a short duration and unexpectedly increased their wheel-running activity during their normal rest phase.
Why it matters
Standard caloric restriction paradigms unintentionally introduce prolonged daily fasting and altered circadian activity, indicating that benefits attributed solely to reduced calories may be confounded by meal timing and fasting physiology.
Limits
The study was conducted entirely in mice, and the abstract provides no sample sizes, specific caloric reduction percentages, or quantitative data. Whether the observed self-imposed fasting drives the life-extending mechanisms of caloric restriction was not detailed in the abstract, and findings in nocturnal rodents may not translate directly to humans.
Cited by
- supports In calorie restriction rodent studies, mice provided food in the daytime consume all of their food within 2 to 3 hours.