Eat 75% of your day’s calories BEFORE 2pm ‘to lose weight faster’
When it comes to dieting, timing is everything
WHEN it comes to weight loss or maintenance, we often focus all our attention on which kinds of food we want to consume.
But increasingly experts seem to think that when we eat matters just as much as what we eat.
Whether it's intermittent fasting, carb cycling or keto-fasting (steering clear of carbs until after midday), many wellness trends now revolve around timing.
Experts are now claiming that "chrononutrition" might be the key to burning body fat effectively and reducing our risk of chronic diseases.
But what is it and how do you do it?
Chrononutrition is the theory that our body clocks regulate our metabolism as well as our sleep.
When we eat something in the morning, we put on less weight and we're less at risk of things like inflammation and diabetes than we are when we eat at night.
It goes back to the old fashioned principle that we should "breakfast like kings, lunch like princes and dine like paupers" - having your biggest meals early on and reducing our intake as we go on during the day.
In fact, it suggests you try to eat 75 per cent of your calorific intake before 2pm - although you can have fibrous veg like broccoli and spinach any time of the day as much as you like.
We've got a main internal clock which is regulated by light and dark, but we've also got mini clocks which are dependent on what we do and what we eat.
What a day of eating looks like
Breakfast – 9am (carbohydrates provide energy for the body, so are best consumed at breakfast rather than other times of the day)
- Poached eggs on long-fermented sourdough breads with spinach, or
- Porridge with slightly green bananas, nuts and seeds
Mid-morning snack – 11am
- houmous with raw vegetables
Late lunch/ Early dinner - 3pm
- Stewed vegetables with legumes for lunch, containing plenty of onions and garlic to feed the gut microbiome. Stews are easy for the body to digest, hopefully avoiding the afternoon slump
Small evening meal/snack - 7pm
- Protein-rich foods containing the amino acid Tryptophan (bananas, nuts, white meat, fish and eggs), which is converted to melatonin (our sleep hormone) in the brain.
And it's those clocks we tap into when we look at chrononutrition.
Hannah Braye, nutritionist at Lepicol, told The Sun that she thinks that we'll all start to become more and more interested in chrononutrition as more studies happen.
"I am hopeful that these studies will consider further the types of food relevant to the time they are consumed as much of the literature so far is only based on energy consumption at different meal times."
So what exactly do the studies say so far?
"Studies have shown an increased risk of obesity and related health conditions when skipping breakfast and eating late at night," says Hannah.
"That suggests the importance of eating a large breakfast and lunch and a smaller meal or snack in the late afternoon or early evening. This will allow the body to digest the food, before sleeping.
"If the body is still digesting food whilst asleep, energy is taken away from other important roles the body has to complete during rest."
She cites a study that found that diet-induced thermogenesis (that's the metabolic process during which your body burns calories to produce heat) was approximately twice as large in the morning at 8am compared with the evening at 8pm.
"Potentially, that means that it takes more calories to digest the same meal in the morning than in the evening. Therefore eating late could result in weight gain."
So it might not be enough to look at what you're eating, you also need to think about when.
Stress is a big factor in timing
Our body clocks are regulated largely by the production and suppression of cortisol - our stress hormone.
We produce lots of it first thing to get our bodies out of bed and we stop producing it later on so that we can sleep. If that delicate balance is thrown out of kilter, we struggle to wake up in the morning and we can't get to sleep in the evening.
That process can be disrupted, Hannah says, by our food intake.
"Food patterns can be influenced by this misalignment through skipping breakfast and continuing to eat in the late evening, causing further disruption to our natural circadian rhythm and wellbeing."
How practical is it to do?
Well, that all depends on your lifestyle.
For many of us, intermittent fasting or mapping out exactly what and when we're going to eat would mean us giving up our social lives - as well as completely disrupting our family time.
Leading and told The Sun: "Although digestion can be optimised by eating at set times and routines, many people’s lifestyles in today’s society simply do not allow for this on a regular basis.
"Therefore, I would typically advise those looking to improve their nutrition to focus on other areas such as looking at the kinds of foods they are eating, such as increasing consumption of fruit and vegetables and reducing consumption of foods containing added sugar.
"Furthermore, too much of a focus on timing of food could lead to something obsessive and potentially encourage disordered eating."
Just how important is timing for weight loss?
Rhiannon says: "There is no single mealtime that leads to increased or reduced weight loss.
"Weight loss is the result of several factors and from a food perspective is dependant on what you eat over several months or years as opposed to one day."
Are there certain foods that should only be eaten at certain points in the day?
Again, there's not a great deal of research about individual foods, with studies so far having just looked at calorie splits during the day.
But one thing Hannah is keen on is that we eat as many prebiotic foods as possible earlier in the day. That'll help feed your gut bacteria which has its own internal clock and has a massive impact on our overall mental and physical health.
"Taking a high fibre supplement such as which contains the prebiotic inulin, five strains of live bacteria and psyllium husk, could help to maintain gut microbiome balance and improve bowel motility."
In an ideal world, you'd give yourself a 14-hour fast between having dinner and breakfast.
That might involve you having your final meal at 4pm and your breakfast at 6am, or finishing dinner at 7pm and starting breakfast at 9am. It's whatever works for you but it's all about giving your body a break and a chance to fully digest what you've eaten the day before.
That'll also help to balance out your blood sugars which will stop you from craving sugary foods at 11am.
So, is it worth the faff?
Well, Hannah seems to think so but Rhiannon isn't convinced.
"We lead busy lives and are always on the go and so although ideally we would form a routine eating pattern, it is not realistic to think that everyone can adopt this.
"This is particularly the case for those working night shifts whereby sleep patterns are altered. Therefore, it’s better to set more achievable goals for improving your diet such as ensuring to eat balanced, varied and nourishing meals when you do come to eat as much as possible.
"I would focus more on trying to eat balanced, nourishing meals when you do come to eat as opposed to obsessing over a specific eating regime. But a well-balanced breakfast of protein, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates and fruit or vegetables can really set you up for the day when you need that energy to get you going.
"Its also important to hydrate as soon as you wake up given your body has not been given any fluids for 7-9 hours, so try and drink a big glass of water. Above all though, everyone’s body is different and so its always best to eat foods that specifically work for you."
MORE ON WEIGHT LOSS
If you do want to give it a go, why not follow Hannah's plan above?
It can be good to give your system a break and if you struggle with energy and sleep, you might want to address when you eat.
But it's not worth stressing about - balance always!
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours