Schedule Your Meals for Speedier Weight Loss
For those who get awesome results from Intermittent Fasting, don’t bother reading the following article. This is for people, for whom fasting either doesn’t work, or doesn’t agree with their schedule. However, if you follow a regular 3-5 meals a day diet, pay attention to the following piece.
How do Meal Times Affect Weight Loss?
New research is being done that indicates that there is more to healthy eating than many originally thought: not only does what you eat play a role in overall health, but when you eat may play a significant role as well. Researchers working at Brigham and Women’s Hospital collaborated with Tufts University and the University of Murcia have released results of a study that has shown that when you eat throughout the day might have an impact on weight loss.
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Meals Times Study
The study, published January 29, 2013, in the International Journal of Obesity, details of the study: the researchers looked at the timing of meals in relation to weight loss that patients in the study experienced, and found that patients who eat meals earlier in the day are likely to lose more weight than patients who eat their meals later.
The study observed 420 patients who were overweight and who followed a weight loss treatment program which took place in Spain over 20 weeks. The main meal in this study, because of the Mediterranean participants, was lunch, which one group of participants ate early (before 3 p.m.) and the other ate late (after 3 p.m.).
It was found that patients who ate their meals earlier lost significantly more weight, and lost weight more quickly, than their counterparts who ate lunch later in the day.
The researchers found no differences in other factors that could contribute to weight loss or gain–including hormones, sleep schedule, and total calorie intake and expenditure–between the two groups, indicating that the meal’s timing had its own, independent impact on the patients’ weight loss.
More Downfalls of Eating Later in the Day
The study not only found that patients who ate their main meal later in the day were slower to lose weight, and lost less weight overall, but also were estimated to have lower insulin sensitivity. This is a risk factor that could contribute to the development of diabetes.
Late eaters also were more likely to skip breakfast, or to consume fewer calories at breakfast, which may have contributed to a slowing of the metabolism causing a decrease in weight loss.
The researchers concluded that their study showed compelling evidence that the earlier a person eats the main meal of their day, the more likely they are to undergo a significant amount of weight loss. This could help contribute to the understanding we have of how weight loss works, and could help people who struggle with their weight to make appropriate changes to their lifestyle.
Tags: Diet, dieting, eat, eating, fat loss, food, lose fat, lose weight, meal time, meals, nutrition, weight loss
