“What’s the best time to eat for weight loss?” I get that question a lot. Meal timing is a concept that Hillary Wright and I discuss in detail in our new book, The Menopause Diet Plan, A Natural Guide to Managing Hormones, Health, and Happiness. In our personal and professional experience, we’ve found that there are better times to eat to lose weight and discourage weight gain.
There are better times of the day to eat most of your calories.
Your circadian rhythms and weight loss
Does this sound familiar? You skip breakfast, eat a light lunch, and are famished at night, when eat your biggest meal at dinner, and then snack.
It’s no wonder! Skimping on food during the day leads to overeating at night as your hunger finally catches up with you. Excess calories aside, there is another reason why eating at night can make it harder to lose weight or prevent the pounds from creeping on over the years.
Researchers are beginning to understand how eating at night can mess with weight control and it involves circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are part of your internal clock, which operates on a 24-hour schedule. They regulate your sleep/wake cycle, calorie burning, and hormones, including insulin, that affect how the body uses blood glucose. Blood glucose is the energy all cells need and is primarily produced by eating carbohydrates.
Skimping on food during the day makes it harder to resist treats at night.
How insulin works to regulate your weight
Insulin is released by the pancreas in response to the higher-than-normal levels of glucose in the blood that occur after eating. Insulin’s job is to “unlock” cells so that glucose can enter and return blood glucose concentrations to a normal range. Insulin also helps the body store the glucose that cells don’t need at the moment. Most of that glucose goes to fat cells for the body to use for energy between meals and snacks.
Because blood glucose regulation is influenced by circadian rhythms, there is a best time to eat for weight loss. Although genetics may play a role, it appears that the body is more sensitive to insulin during the day and more resistant to it at night. That means eating too much food at night leads to excess levels of insulin and other fat-storing hormones in the blood at the time of day when your body is designed to burn stored body fat. A pattern of overeating at night also strains your pancreas by forcing it to produce more insulin to reduce blood glucose levels.
Should you try intermittent fasting for weight loss and better health?
Consuming most of your calories earlier in the day may help you lose weight or not gain weight as easily as you age. One study divided 93 women into two different meal plans with the same number of calories for 12 weeks. Women who ate most of their calories at breakfast and lunch and had a small dinner lost nearly three times as much weight as those who consumed the most food at lunch and dinner.
In a recent study of overweight women with an average age of 40, researchers found not eating within two hours of bedtime or consuming all food within an 11-hour period every day (often called time-restricted eating) were associated with a lower overall calorie intake. Eating less at night, when your body is getting ready to sleep, can also help you get more rest. Adequate sleep is linked to easier weight control.
Eating less, or not at all, after dinner may be the ticket to easier weight control.
A no diet approach to weight control
Some people can eat at any time of day without consequence, but most cannot. If you’re struggling with snacking too much after dinner, here are some helpful tips that don’t involve drastic dieting:
• Include enough protein at every meal. Protein is filling and can decrease nighttime noshing.
• Eat 1/4 to 1/2 of your current nighttime snack. You will probably wake up hungry and be more likely to eat balanced meals throughout the day, which will help decrease nighttime hunger.
• Don’t eat in front of a screen or while reading. Mindful eating is important for knowing when you’ve had enough food. Sit at a table when snacking.
• Focus on non-food activities away from the kitchen.
Hi, I'm a registered dietitian, writer, recipe developer, and mother of three who specializes in food and nutrition communications and believes in progress, not perfection. If you're interested in easier ways to live a healthier life, you're in the right place. Welcome!