Simple question…or not as the case may be🤔.
To explain I’m going to take you back to science lessons at school👩🏫.
Look I’m allowed to as I have two science degrees and I need to unleash my inner geek occasionally. I promise that it will be a lot more interesting than school work🤪!!!
Here we go👩🏫…
Ok so eating for optimal health doesn’t just depend on what you’re eating but also when you eat🕐, especially if you’re trying to lose weight or if you have any other health considerations👩⚕️.
When it comes to the question of the ideal time to eat dinner, the answer may depend on your personal health-related goals or medical conditions👩⚕️.
One of the most common approaches to weight loss is to reduce the total amount of food that you’re eating. Related to that, meal timing may be important in reaching your goals.
It is good to eat your last meal before your body starts releasing melatonin and preparing for sleep. Melatonin is a natural hormone that helps control our sleep cycle😴.
Your brain begins releasing melatonin at night in response to normal light and dark hours of the day. This is your circadian rhythm, which is closely linked to your metabolism and the rate at which you burn calories🔥.
Are you still with me…YAWN🥱😴???
Eating later in the evening, when your brain has started preparing for sleep, is associated with increased body fat. It may also disrupt your body’s natural circadian rhythm (sleep/wake cycle). This in turn may increase the risk of weight gain and associated health problems, god dammit🙈.
Late night eating is also associated with a greater total daily calorie intake🙈.
Studies (real ones😉) have shown that even when people have the same daily calorie intake overall, those who ate the most calories at breakfast lost 2.5 times more weight than those who ate the most at dinner😲.
So timing your dinner to occur before the sun goes down may be most beneficial, as it won’t disrupt your circadian rhythm, your sleep patterns😴 or your weight loss and it will help to keep you fit and healthy😀.
Now I might be pushing it a bit here with the science lesson, but I promise you that its interesting😀.
Eating late at night also affects something called AUTOPHAGY👩🔬.
This is the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells and it occurs when we’re in a fasted state, which for most of us is when we’re asleep😴.
Ideally to get the most benefit from Autophagy we need to fast for 12 hours overnight, so if you eat breakfast at 7.00am you need to finish eating at 7.00pm👍.
This is called Time Restricted Eating (TRE) and is a strategy that I often use with my clients. When we eat late at night our body is too busy digesting food to carry out these essential processes that keep us healthy.
So eat your dinner at a time that supports your health goals and sleep patterns👍.
Ok its over, you can stop dozing now!!!
WAKE UP🥱😜!!!
Until next time, stay safe and take care.
Pip xx
