In a new study, researchers collected the daily eating habits of more than 150 people via a mobile research app over a period of three weeks, dispatch times reports.

The findings were published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The researchers tested if the mobile app could help people regulate their eating habits by restricting the timing of their eating. The mobile app helped the participants document their eating routine by accounting for their calories along with the exact time they ate the food.

"The study is about developing methods and offers some preliminary insight into what and when people eat", said Panda, associate professor in the Salk Institute's regulatory biology laboratory.

The researchers tested their theory on eight of the study's participants, all of whom were overweight or obese. The eating hours of the participants normally spanned for more than 14 hours.

The participants in the study were shown their long and erratic patterns of eating and asked to limit their consumption of any eatable with more than 5 calories to a 10- to 12-hour span each day and then to maintain a fast for the remaining 12 to 14 hours. After 16 weeks of this, these participants lost an average of 7.2 pounds and reported better sleep and more energy.

The researchers said that the study showed that a timed feeding schedule could prevent the distortion of the body's circadian rhythms, which usually becomes disrupted due to irregular eating times, or changes in habits.