I found a couple of interesting studies that look at the effect of a compressed eating window. This first study shows that circadian rhythms were important for determing the effects of food intake. Mice fed a high-fat diet during the 12-hour dark period (mice are obviously nocturnal) gained less weight than mice fed a high-fat diet during the 12-hour light period. This is similar to what you see in studies on shift workers.
The second study takes a different angle. The researchers again fed rats a high-fat diet. The control group had access to calories over 24 hours. The treatment group had a condensed feeding window of 8 hours. The result: no weight gain for the mice with the condensed eating window! This happened even though calorie intake was exactly the same in both groups.
So as far as I can tell from these two separate studies, even given a high-fat diet, shortening the feeding window from 12 to 8 hours will prevent obesity in mice.
Stefani Ruper recently did a great piece cautioning that much of the research on IF has been on males and the results do not look as unequivocally positive for females. A good read for women considering this tool: http://www.paleoforwomen.com/shattering-the-myth-of-fasting-for-women-a-review-of-female-specific-responses-to-fasting-in-the-literature/
I believe it. I’ve seen similar things in the research literature.
Warrior Diet.
Or Leangains.
At 114, Walter Breuning said one of the reasons he lived so long was that he only ate breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the innate disposition required to keep this discipline our entire lives.
The success rate is probably similar to the percentage of night owls who permanently transform themselves into early morning risers.