01/14/2026
Eating -- It's gotten very confusing
Actually, most people are not confused by eating — they do a damn good job of it! Too good.
What I’m talking about, of course, is all the contradictory reports of what to eat, how to eat, when to eat.
If you’re not out to sell books, most basic information is solid — eat food (not boxes of stuff), stop when you’re about 80% full (Okinowan Hara Hachi — they live a long time!), get good sleep, move and lastly — Stop eating so that the time between your last meal of one day is more than 12 hours to the first meal of the next. This used to be a standard, but now it isn’t always, but it should be.
The concept is called Time Restricted Eating (TRE) - not intermittent fasting, which is not eating for more than 24 hours. TRE comes in numerous varieties, but the concept is restrict eating to a certain time window less than 12 hours. The extreme is OMAD (one meal a day), or a 2 hour eating window. A 10 hour eating window is common and pretty easy to achieve for most everyone.
The study reviewed variations in an 8 hour eating window, and found that each of them did better at weight loss and weight loss maintenance than a non-restricted window. There was a slight advantage to an early eating window (eat breakfast, early dinner), but only slight.
If you haven’t tried TRE, it’s worth a try. I’m happy to assist — it can take a little guidance to maximize the benefits.
www.feldmed.com/blog-2/eating-its-gotten-very-confusing