We Choose Our Meal Times Incorrectly

It's not just what you eat that matters: your body's biological clock plays a significant role in how food is assimilated, writes BBC. This is studied by a relatively new discipline — chrononutrition.

The body operates according to a daily biological rhythm. At different times of the day, hormonal levels, insulin sensitivity, appetite, and the body's ability to process and store energy change.

Therefore, the same food, eaten, for example, during the day and directly before sleep, can have different metabolic effects.

Why It's Better Not to Postpone Lunch

Spanish researcher Marta Garaulet drew attention to this more than ten years ago when working with people who wanted to lose weight.

She had two patients who lived together, ate the same food, and followed the same program. Only one thing differed: one had lunch around 13:00, the other — later.

After six weeks, the one who had lunch earlier lost more weight.

After this, Garaulet conducted a study with 420 adult Spaniards. All of them participated in the same weight loss program for 20 weeks.

The result was similar: people who had lunch earlier lost weight faster and lost more weight.

In another experiment, 32 healthy women received the same food for two weeks. In those who ate later, blood sugar control worsened, and the ability to burn carbohydrates decreased.

This doesn't mean that lunch time itself "burns fat." The point is that the body's metabolism works differently during the day and in the evening.

Why the Body Processes Food Worse in the Evening

Professor Frank Scheer explains it simply: from a biological point of view, we are not entirely the same in the morning and in the evening.

Our circadian clock controls a large number of processes in the body. When a person eats at a time when the body is already preparing for sleep, a unique mismatch arises between mealtime and the biological clock.

This is especially evident with blood sugar.

In a 2022 study, more than 800 people received a drink with a carbohydrate content roughly equivalent to a typical dinner. Some drank it four hours before bedtime, others — one hour before bedtime.

In those who consumed it closer to bedtime:

• blood sugar increased more;
• the body produced less insulin;
• glucose was processed worse.

One of the reasons is melatonin. In the evening, when the body enters sleep preparation mode, its level rises. And at this moment, the body's ability to regulate glucose normally deteriorates.

Therefore, the problem with late dinner is not only that a person might consume excess calories. The very time food enters the body can worsen sugar control.

Late Eating Can Make a Person More Hungry

There is another interesting effect. Late eating can alter the function of hormones that regulate appetite.

People who ate later experienced a stronger feeling of hunger the next day. At the same time, the body produced less leptin — a hormone that tells the brain that a person is full.

So, an unpleasant pattern emerges:

late eating → hormonal dysregulation → greater hunger the next day → higher risk of overeating.

Mealtime also affects what the body does with fat.

With late eating, the body may be more inclined to store fat rather than break it down.

This can be especially important for people who are genetically predisposed to weight gain. In a study of almost 1200 people, later eating was associated with a higher body mass index in individuals with an increased genetic risk of obesity. Earlier eating, on the contrary, weakened this association.

Early Eating and the Heart

There is also data on cardiovascular health.

In a large French study involving over 100,000 people, individuals who had breakfast later had a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases.

An interesting detail: it turned out that not just a long night pause between meals was beneficial, but specifically an earlier dinner.

This means that if a person wants to increase the night period without food, it's better to have an earlier dinner, rather than simply skipping or greatly delaying breakfast.

What about those who work at night? For people with night shifts, this is especially difficult, as their schedule constantly contradicts the natural circadian rhythm.

Researchers suggest, if feasible, to keep main meals during the daytime and limit nocturnal eating.

But this is not a strict rule. For example, a medic working all night might need to eat to maintain energy. In such a case, a small snack, preferably high in protein, is better than a large, heavy meal.

"Lark" or "Owl" Also Matters

Not all people have the same biological clock.

There is a chronotype — a person's tendency to be more active in the morning or in the evening.

"Larks" usually:

• wake up earlier;
• become sleepy earlier;
• have an earlier peak in insulin sensitivity;
• are naturally inclined to eat earlier.

"Owls" become active later and go to bed later. Accordingly, their metabolic processes also occur later.

The problem is that "owls" more often eat late in the evening and may get most of their calories precisely at this time.

Their later meals are more often associated with:

• worse glucose control;
• a greater risk of weight gain;
• a less favorable eating pattern.

But a person should not force themselves to become a "lark." You need to take your own chronotype into account and, if you are used to eating very late, gradually shift dinner to an earlier time.

Sleep Is Also Very Important Here

Mealtime cannot be considered separately from sleep.

Lack of sleep alters appetite: a person more often wants to eat and more often chooses high-calorie food.

Therefore, it is best to consume the main and most caloric food in the first half of the day.

In the morning and afternoon, the body copes better with carbohydrates. Dinner should be lighter. Preference can be given to protein. Evening foods can include nuts and seeds, as well as protein sources rich in tryptophan: chicken, salmon, tuna. Tryptophan is associated with improved sleep quality.

And a very important point: there is no single magical hour, for example, "dinner must be strictly at 18:00." The main guideline is to have dinner at least three hours before bedtime.

Thus, for metabolic health, not only the quantity and quality of food are important, but also its synchronicity with the biological clock. The closer food is to bedtime, the worse the body generally copes with it.

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