Time to Eat: Increased Meal Regularity, Weight Loss, and Well-Being – A Randomized Controlled Pilot Study

Circadian disruption is linked to metabolic and affective disturbances, but whether increasing meal regularity can reduce body weight and improve well-being without prescribed dietary restriction remains unclear. In this single-center randomized pilot study, 121 adults with BMI ≥22 kg/m² were assigned to personalized regular meal schedules or a minimal-intervention control condition using a self-selected 18-hour eating window. Of these, 100 participants completed the study. After six weeks, participants following personalized meal schedules lost 2.62 kg on average, compared with 0.56 kg in the control group, with greater reductions in body weight and BMI after adjustment for baseline BMI, age, and sex. Weight loss was associated with improved meal regularity, but not with self-reported changes in energy intake or macronutrient composition. Well-being also improved within the experimental group, with the strongest adjusted between-group evidence observed for sleep quality. These findings support meal regularity as a modifiable behavioral dimension of metabolic regulation.