Reading through the many health related articles on NPR's The Salt blog, one caught my interest. This new article discusses recent research adding on to the sentiment that the time of day and the portions your eat have a large effect on weight-loss and metabolism.
The study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that people who ate their main meal after 3pm lost significantly less weight than those who ate the bulk of their calories at earlier meals. To many of you, this might not be a startling realization. Thinking about it, it makes sense that your body can utilize the resources more efficiently during the day when you are active, as opposed to at night when most of us are mostly sedentary.
Wait, eating this in the evening slows my metabolism?
The relationship between when we eat and how our body handles it is an interesting thought. Shifting meals around might be something to try out. Most days by the time I am home from work, I go on a tear through the kitchen trying to find anything that is easily consumable, even while I am cooking dinner. Having a decent breakfast that could get me later into the afternoon, and then having a respectable lunch to get me further into the evening might be an interesting way to prevent binge-snacking and calorie overload in between meals.
Have any of you ever tried shifting around your meal sizes, or the times that you eat?
No, I have never tried shifting the times I eat. I probably should. I just don’t feel that hungry during the day because I’m not focusing on it. I’m busy getting ready for work, driving, working, walking the dog, etc. It’s not until I finally walk through the door and put down all my stuff and/or sit and rest for a moment that I realize how hungry I am. And that is usually around 6 p.m.
I think this would be a serious struggle to try to make this change for the long-term. But I definitely think you, Jono, should work on eating more frequently throughout the day because you tell me how hungry you get by, like, 1 p.m.! Me, I just don’t notice it, I guess.
Maybe if I didn’t eat my whole lunch by 11:00 am…. that might help hehe. Its just so tasty
My biggest meal is typically in the morning. I then fill up on coffee in the afternoon and tea in the evening to keep that full feeling without calories.
My biggest meal is also usually a bowl of cereal :(. Not what I would consider a ‘normal’ bowl of cereal either, but a 1-serving-size bowl of cereal.
I used to drink a lot of liquid… but fell out of the habit. Now it comes down to a couple cups of coffee with breakfast and then some water in the evening… probably would help delay hunger. Besides if it took me as long as it takes you to make tea, i’d never have time to eat anything anyway
LOL! I get this joke! AFK!
te he he
Sorry, I’m about halfway through making my first cup of the day.
Yeah, I definitely have this problem. Gracie says I have an eating disorder because whenever she asks me what I’ve eaten throughout the day, I say nothing and then I go home and eat a burrito. No bueno.
But so tasty
What is that picture of? cause it looks delicious!
Something smothered and cheese!
There are multiple studies that all support eating breakfast to jump start your metabolism. The saying goes eat like a king in the morning, a prince at lunch and a pauper in the evening. There are also several articles and books written that support eating five smaller meals instead of three large ones for a more even supply of calories and nutrients for your body to utilize. You just have to be careful that your snacks don’t turn in to full sized meals.