Science Digest: Exercise and Time-Restricted Eating

This week’s paper, “Effect of exercise alone and in combination with time-restricted eating on cognitive health in menopausal women”, was published August 2025 in Frontiers in Public Health, a respected (Q1), peer-reviewed journal in public health research.

I chose this study because intermittent fasting (especially the 16:8 pattern) is one of the most popular wellness trends of the decade – and many midlife women have adopted it in hopes of boosting metabolism, energy, and focus. But does pairing it with exercise actually improve brain health during menopause? This research team put that exact question to the test.

The Study in a Nutshell

Researchers from two universities in Poland ran a 12-week intervention in 59 perimenopausal, menopausal, and postmenopausal women, comparing two groups:

• Exercise-only (twice-weekly moderate resistance and endurance circuit training).
• Exercise + time-restricted eating (TRE) following a self-chosen 8-hour eating window.

Before and after the intervention, participants completed cognitive tests (measuring processing speed, selective attention, working memory and attention), EEG brain activity recordings, and blood tests for proteins linked to learning and memory: BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and GDNF (glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor).