For ladies and men trying to lose weight or avoid belly fat, and to lower blood cholesterol, research shows that “Time-restricted eating” is pivotal to your goals.
Time-Restricted eating involves selecting an 8-10hour window during which to have all your meals. An example of a 10 hour window is 9am – 7pm. So, whether breakfast, lunch or dinner, no meal should be consumed outside these hours.
The effect of this is that your circadian rhythm – which regulates your body’s activities – learns the particular time frame to expect food and digest it. With consistency, your circadian rhythm learns to anticipate food at this time and amplify bodily functions to increase the efficiency of the process of digestion, absorption and breakdown of calories. Also, this window should start one hour after you wake up and end 3 hours before you sleep. For example, if you wake up 6am, your window can start anytime from 7am and if you sleep at 11pm, your window should not exceed closing by 8pm.
The reason for this is to maximize the time during which your metabolism is most active to break down calories and aid digestion efficiency. Especially, as you are very active in these hours. Studies also have shown that irrespective of night shifts, this eating window should be adhered to. Keeping in mind that it is poor digestion that causes major weight gain and when you eat haphazardly, you disturb the circadian rhythm. Hence, the body has to keep adjusting to the irregularities in your metabolic demands, and of course this will limit the efficiency of your circadian system.
Additional tip: usually the best time to exercise is late afternoon (2pm – 5pm) because this is when your body is at the peak of its energy and can burn the most fat easily by pushing your physical limits!!!
The study that provides scientific evidence for this report was conducted over 12 weeks to understand the relationship between dietary window and weight gain, as well as waist circumference. It particularly compared workers with an eating window of over 14 hours/day, to workers with an eating window of 10 hours/day, over a few months. The results showed an average weight loss of 275g/week, and reduction in waist circumference of 4-6cm within 12 weeks, in workers who adopted the time-restricted eating method. Notably this was without any form of physical exercise. There was also a significant increase in restful sleep.
About Author:
Dr. Macaulay Victor U. is a Medical Doctor, Writer and General Health Enthusiast currently based in Lagos, Nigeria. After graduating from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, He is exploring a new found interest in helping people stay informed about healthy life practices in their daily lives on his blog at www.lovefamilymedicine.wordpress.com . He is also a passionate gospel artist, and dancer with his music group ” The Chronicles” and songs recorded on at www.thechronicles777.wordpress.com
