Caffeine suppresses high-fat diet-induced body weight gain in mice depending on feeding timing

The time-dependent effects of caffeine intake on physiological functions remain to be investigated, although various effects of caffeine on physiological functions have been document. Therefore, the present study inves-tigated the optimal timing of caffeine intake to produce an efficient anti-obesity effect. We prepared a high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD supplemented with 0.03% caffeine (HFD-caf) and regulated twice-daily 8-hour time-restricted feeding. Male Institute of Cancer Research mice were divided into three groups: group fed HFD alone (control), group fed HFD-caf at the beginning of the active period (BF-caf), and group fed HFD-caf at the end of the active period (DN-caf). The BF-caf group (42.8 +/- 1.5 g) showed lower body weight than the other groups (control, 49.7 +/- 2.1 g; DN-caf, 47.1 +/- 1.3 g), although the three groups showed similar HFD intake levels. Therefore, caffeine intake at the beginning of the active period suppressed HFD-induced body weight gain.