According to research, this is the best time to eat for maximum weight loss

Many of us focus on what to eat rather than when to eat when it comes to reducing weight. But does the order in which you eat matter? It does seem to matter, according to recent research.

In order to determine whether adopting time-restricted eating is more beneficial for weight loss, fat loss, and cardiometabolic health than eating over a period of 12 or more hours, researchers looked at 90 obese persons.

The outcomes demonstrated that early time-restricted eating was superior for weight loss.

Should the time of meals be a part of your weight loss plan in light of this? Here are the opinions of health professionals.

The Relationship between Time-Restricted Eating and Weight Loss

With this study, many questions remain unsolved.

There are some issues with this study, says Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson, a renowned expert in functional medicine and the author of Vibrant: A Groundbreaking Program to Get Energized, Reverse Aging, and Glow. "Although I agree with the spirit of this experiment, which in my opinion is to explore whether people are better off not eating all day long from early morning to late night, there are some issues with this study," she says.

"The study contrasted fasting after three o'clock on most days of the week with eating inside an eight-hour window from seven a.m. to three p.m. However, they did not compare it to eating later in the day, say between noon and 8 p.m., within an eight-hour timeframe. Instead, they contrasted it with a group that solely fasted for 12 or less hours at night and did not exercise time-restricted eating.

The study mentions that eating earlier in the day may be better for weight loss since the body burns more calories earlier in the day, but it doesn't actually examine if this earlier eating window affects weight loss without comparing it to a time-restricted window later in the day. All it really reveals to us is that persons who limited their eating to an eight-hour window shed more weight. Would a later dining window have the same impact? Dr. Stephenson continues that this study does not address that.

Do people typically consume less food when they eat less frequently over the day? On that issue, the study is also not totally clear. In addition, other studies, such as one published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2022, demonstrated that time-restricted eating did not result in any greater weight loss or other benefits than calorie reduction alone without the time restriction when used in conjunction with a lower-calorie diet.

This study may also support the notion that carefully enforcing time restrictions on eating is essential for weight loss. It doesn't always work like this. According to Dr. Stephenson, time-restricted eating might cause overeating and binge-eating episodes in some persons. Time-restricted eating, or intermittent fasting as it is frequently called, is likely advantageous to some people but not to others, according to research on both sides of the debate. It's important to keep in mind that this way of eating can be challenging for families and can disrupt social activities for many people.

The study did not come to the conclusion that there was a "ideal time window"; rather, it found that the shorter your eating window, the more weight you would lose, according to Dr. William Li, a doctor, scientist, president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, and author of Eat To Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. In actuality, eating every eight hours or every twelve hours was advantageous.

What was intriguing was that the smaller time window group started eating early in the morning at 7 a.m. and finished eating at 3 p.m. Due to the shortened eating window, the body essentially goes into a 16-hour fast from mid-afternoon until early the next morning.

According to Dr. Li, laboratory research on mice looked at this same time frame (16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating) and found it could lead to weight loss. The blood insulin levels are lower while fasting, which is the cause. When insulin levels are lower, more time is available to burn fat since insulin generally inhibits lipolysis, the process of burning fat for energy. This is what gave rise to the "16/8" intermittent fasting trend, which is supported by the study by Jamshed et al.

There are various things to consider, according to Dr. Li:

• Both the 16-hour and 12-hour fasts resulted in clinically significant weight reduction (they both worked), albeit the 16-hour fast caused about 50% more weight loss.

• The 16-hour group began eating relatively early and stopped in the middle of the day. If you started late in the morning, say at 11 a.m., and finished early in the evening, say at 7 p.m., it's unknown if the findings would be the same.

• Because they were unable to stick to the regimen, study participants in the shorter eating window group dropped out. Therefore, this form of more restrictive eating pattern takes practicality into account. The plan won't function if you are unable to follow it.

• Both groups received nutrition counseling, were required to engage in regular exercise, and reduced their daily calorie intake—all of which can have an impact on whether or not they successfully lose weight.

A Successful Overall Weight Loss Plan

The greatest strategy is to listen to your body's natural hunger signals.

Dr. Stephenson adds that in order to accomplish this, you must first improve your diet. Because of the seductive mixtures of sugar, fat, and salt in processed foods, our normal hunger cues may be confused, leading us to overeat. If you move to a diet that consists primarily of whole foods, what typically happens is that you start to recognize real hunger cues, and in many situations, that may mean you naturally eat within an eight-hour (or 10-hour, or six-hour) window.

For instance, there are occasions when Dr. Stephenson "doesn't feel like having breakfast, supper, or I have a full breakfast and don't need lunch." "I skip that meal if I'm not hungry because I see that as a sign that I don't need any more food. Which meal you skip doesn't really matter in my opinion. What counts are the foods you choose and whether you are actually hungry.

Humans don't necessarily need to eat all the time, although many do for reasons other than hunger, including boredom, worry, food availability, or enjoyment. Sometimes that's alright, but if it happens frequently, there's a good possibility you'll consume more energy than you need, which will likely result in fat storage. Dr. Stephenson continues, "It's not as complicated as people sometimes think it is.

Future studies comparing time-restricted eating windows at various times of the day might add to the evidence that eating earlier is marginally more advantageous for weight loss than eating later, but those findings would need to be confirmed.

According to Dr. Stephenson, eating, weight gain, and weight loss are highly individualized processes that depend on a variety of internal and environmental factors. A more dependable strategy to assist your body in achieving and maintaining a healthy weight for you is to eat intuitively in accordance with your specific needs.

reference

• JAMA Internal Medicine: “Effectiveness of Early Time-Restricted Eating for Weight Loss, Fat Loss, and Cardiometabolic Health in Adults With Obesity”
• Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson, a recognized leader in functional medicine and author of Vibrant: A Groundbreaking Program to Get Energized, Reverse Aging, and Glow
• Dr. William Li, physician, scientist, president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation, and author of Eat To Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself
• Italian Journal of Eating Disorders and Obesity: “Regular eating, not intermittent fasting, is the best strategy for a healthy eating control”
• The New England Journal of Medicine: “Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss”