This post comes to us from our friends at Optimal Body Balance.
Are you a calorie counter? You might want to start paying more attention to the clock instead. A new study published in the Journal of Cell Metabolism found that the timing of meals and overnight fasting may have more to do with weight loss than how many calories you’re actually consuming.
In other words, when you eat is just as important as what you eat.
The idea is that you want to limit the time you are eating to a window of 8-10 hours. So if you eat breakfast at 8am (and you should definitely be eating breakfast), then you want to eat dinner by 6pm. You want to be eating your meals and snacks within this window because you are obviously more active during the day when you’re awake as opposed to overnight when you’re asleep. When you’re awake and active, your body can burn calories more efficiently. So breakfast calories count differently than late night pizza calories.
What you should do is plan out what and when you will eat. And write it down. When you make a plan and write it down you are much more likely to stick to it. This will help with snacking and overeating throughout the day. You’ll know exactly when and what you will be eating, leaving no room for vending machine or drive-thru trips. Once your 10 hour window is over, make it a rule to not eat anything else.
Want to read the full article? You can find it here.
