Dietary and nutritional content reviewed by Jasmin Gorostiza, DT, DM, DSS, CFPP.️
If you’re trying to lose weight, you shouldn’t just focus on what you should eat. Research shows that you should also focus on the time you take your meals.
According to a report on the International Journal of Obesity, when to eat weighs just as much as what to eat during weight loss. Researches from the Brigham and Hospital conclude that a large lunch eaten after three in the afternoon significantly slows down the weight loss process. It also increases the chances of acquiring type 2 diabetes.
So if you think you’re doing the right thing by skipping or delaying your meals, think again. You’re not only slowing down your chances of losing weight. You’re also endangering your health.
So if you think you’re doing the right thing by skipping or delaying your meals, think again. You’re not only slowing down your chances of losing weight. You’re also endangering your health.
It’s A Must To Eat On Time
Eating on time is just as challenging as picking out the right food to eat. Given the fact that you have to eat frequently within the day to lose weight safely, you’re focused more on complying with a six-meal-a-day plan. So the tendency there is this. You simply stick to eating six times a day without carefully scheduling your meals.
This leads you to eat a little breakfast before leaving the house. It also tempts you to grab a quick snack around lunchtime, since you usually don’t have enough time to eat a snack in the morning. And with so much work to be done, you just never have the time to eat a decent meal for lunch. Related read: Lose weight now with Nutrisystem frozen foods
Eventually, this gets you to eat a heavy lunch late into the afternoon. The chaos of the day leaves you to figure out as to when you should catch up with the three other meals. Then finally you decide to eat them when you get home, which leaves you to overload instead.
Sadly, it takes more than that to go about your six-meal-a-day plan. Fact is, you need to properly space out these meals to effectively lose weight. Hence, the timing of your food intake is also a crucial part of your weight loss quest.
As much as it is important to eat a timely breakfast, you should also eat the other meals on time. Be it snacks or meals, they should all be eaten on time.
It’s a no brainer as to when to schedule breakfast. The only challenging thing about eating breakfast is to make time for it. Eating a timely breakfast means getting up earlier than usual. That can be quite taxing to do every single day. But just the same, you should never skip breakfast. Here’s why.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health have discovered that men, whose ages ranged from 45 to 85, are at a higher risk of suffering from a heart attack or a heart disease simply because they skip breakfast.
To be exact, the men that usually skip breakfast have 27% more chances of suffering from any kind of heart disease. This is compared to the men that usually take some time to have a morning meal.
To be exact, the men that usually skip breakfast have 27% more chances of suffering from any kind of heart disease. This is compared to the men that usually take some time to have a morning meal.
There is a scientific explanation to all this. Skipping breakfast will only make you feel hungrier during the day. And because of that hungry feeling, you’ll end up craving and eating more later in the day. That’s going to spike your blood sugar to a higher level. If this becomes a habit of yours, you can end up with high levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. You can also end up with diabetes. So it’s no myth. You need to eat a healthy breakfast.
As much as breakfast is important, so is lunch. Lunchtime is the best time to fuel up for the rest of your day. You will have more energy to get through the rest of your day. So it’s pretty obvious why you should eat lunch on time.
You can seriously consider eating a big meal for lunch. But wait. A big meal doesn’t necessarily mean it’s loaded with calories. According to a registered dietitian nutritionist from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Judy Caplan, a big and hearty meal consists of vegetables and salad that don’t have a lot of calories.
So yes, it’s possible for you to have a full meal that contains few or very little calories. You just need to make sure that you eat on time all the time.
So yes, it’s possible for you to have a full meal that contains few or very little calories. You just need to make sure that you eat on time all the time. Related read: Save on Nutrisystem with This Discount
The Fuss About Late Night Eating
Breakfast and lunch are usually skipped or scheduled irregularly. By now, you know that skipping these meals is a bad habit especially if you’re trying to lose weight. Needless to say, it’s also an unhealthy habit to do so.
It’s a different thing with dinnertime. This is the time when you usually catch up on your meals. That’s a bad thing because you shouldn’t overload during dinnertime. If you eat a lot during dinnertime, it’s harder to burn all the calories. And if you can’t burn them off, your body stores them as fat. There goes your diet.
She says that eating right before bedtime spikes up your insulin and blood sugar levels. You’ll have a hard time sleeping.
Tracy Lockwood, a dietitian from the F-Factor Nutrition, cites the importance of eating a lighter meal toward the day’s end. She says that eating right before bedtime spikes up your insulin and blood sugar levels. You’ll have a hard time sleeping. At the same time, you’ll have a higher risk for such diseases like diabetes and other health related issues such as acid reflux.
On a different note, skipping dinner isn’t such a great idea as well. Linden Schaffer, a certified health and wellness expert, says you’re not going to get a good night sleep if you go to bed hungry.
Going to bed hungry puts your body on a starvation mode. Your metabolism slows down so that it can conserve the calories. Instead of burning muscle, your body is burning fat. And according to Schaffer, this is not a good idea at all.
She adds that if you really want to avoid going to bed hungry, you should eat small meals throughout the day. She recommends eating five small meals a day. These meals should be low in calories and high in nutrients. Now if you really get hungry before bedtime, grab some fruits and nuts instead.
Now if you really get hungry before bedtime, grab some fruits and nuts instead.
There really shouldn’t be too much fuss about eating at night. The bottomline is this. You just need to stick to your daily calorie budget. That said, you should stay away from junk food and sweets that can make you exceed your calorie budget for the day.
It’s very important to maintain a regular meal schedule. You cannot skip and make up for the other meals by eating more on your next mealtime. That’s just not the right way to lose weight safely.
I try not to eat at night. If ever I do, I eat pretty lightly but of course, that’s easier said than done. It helps to drink water. It keeps me full.
Despite my culinary background, I wouldn’t know how to come up with meals that are low in calories but high in nutrients. That’s more of a skill of a nutritionist. Hiring one would be pretty expensive. Better to stick with Nutrisystem instead. 😊
Eating on time establishes a healthy routine where you’re body doesn’t get hungry at all. Furthermore, it’s a lot easier to control your food intake if you feed your body on time. If you skip a meal, the tendency is that you make up for more food intake. When that happens, it’s pretty impossible to control it. It’s okay to do that once but if you have a habit of skipping meals and not eating on time, you’re always going to take in more calories than you should.
It’s a big challenge to eat on time and preparing a healthy dish is even a bigger challenge. I would really have to prepare all my meals ahead of time or use a service that can do all that for me. Personally, I think the latter sounds more doable.
I guess the bottom line is eating moderately. You can do that by eating on time. That way, you eat the right amount of food with the right amount of calories as well. You won’t get hungry in between meals. At the same time, you won’t feel too stuffed.
If I miss out a meal, I usually end up eating more because I make up for what I’ve lost. That makes me feel really crappy at the end. My tummy bloats. I feel and look awful after.