The newest instalment - the 10:14 diet - focuses on consuming all your meals in a 10-hour window, before fasting for 14 hours. For example, if your first meal is at 7:00am, you'd need to finish your last feed by 5:00pm.
And findings published in Cell Metabolism suggest there is some merit to the eating plan.
After recruiting 19 overweight adults with elevated blood sugar, elevated cholesterol levels and high blood pressure, researchers put them on the eating approach for three months.
"Typically, people would go for an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. eating window," says Dr. Pam Taub, a study author and cardiologist at the University of California, San Diego's School of Medicine.
RELATED: Why Intermittent Fasting Is More Than Just A Passing Fad
Volunteers made sure they were well hydrated during the fasting period. They not only recorded the timing of their meals but also their sleep habits.
The results were extremely positive.
"We saw a 3 per cent reduction in their weight and a 4 per cent reduction in abdominal visceral fat," Taub continues.
"We didn't ask them to change what they eat," she explains. However, given the smaller time window to consumer food, the group took in nearly 10 per cent fewer calories.
It wasn't just an improvement on scales. "We saw that cholesterol levels improved and blood pressure also improved."
"We are surprised that this small change in eating time would give them such a huge benefit," adds Satchidananda Panda, a co-author of the study and professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
"When you go into a fasting state, you start to deplete the glucose stores in your body and you start to use fat as your energy source," says Taub. "You can enter a low-grade state of ketosis."
If you're curious to learn more about Intermittent Fasting, you can check out our full guide here.
