bioRxiv : the preprint server for biologyNov 24, 2025

Limited daily feeding improves health in female and lifespan in male C57BL/6J mice

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Jun 27, 2026

Abstract

Essence

Nightly time-restricted feeding improved aging measures in mice, with female healthspan and male lifespan benefits differing by feeding window.

Evidence

A preclinical mouse study tested 12-hour and 8-hour nightly time-restricted feeding in male and female C57BL/6J mice on regular chow, assessing behavioral regularity, body composition, frailty, disease onset, a composite Healthspan Index, and lifespan.

Caveat

Only 8-hour TRF extended male lifespan by 12%, and that group self-imposed caloric restriction, making feeding time hard to separate from reduced intake.

Simplified

Time-restricted feeding (TRF) aligned with an organism's circadian rhythm has been shown to improve health, but its long-term effects on healthspan and lifespan in mammals, especially under normal dietary conditions, remain unclear. In this study, we tested the impact of 12-hour (h) and 8h nightly TRF windows on aging in male and female mice fed regular chow. TRF improved several health measures, including the regularity of behavioral patterns, body weight and composition, frailty, and disease onset, with stronger effects observed in the 8h-TRF group, which self-imposed a caloric restriction. When integrated into a composite Healthspan Index, these improvements revealed that TRF prolonged healthspan in females more effectively than in males. Only 8h-TRF extended lifespan in males by 12%, suggesting that TRF exerts sex-specific effects on aging.

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Funding

Competing interests

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authors report competing interests

6 report none

PubMed

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