Can’t lose weight? Timing of food may be preventing your progress
Are you eating all the “right” foods but still can’t lose weight? Most likely you’re missing a key element to weight loss. It’s not just WHAT you eat, it’s also WHEN you eat.
Our brain has an internal clock, or as we know it our “biological clock”. This clock is set by our circadian rhythm, when we sleep and when we are awake. This rhythm flows to our eating patterns, when we eat meals and when we don’t. What happens if this clock gets disrupted?
When we start eating highly processed foods, high in sugar, simple carbs, and calories, a chemical known as dopamine gets released from the pleasure centers in our brain. A recent study found a link between the release of dopamine and the disruption of our feeding schedule, causing us to consume more than we should throughout the day and between meal times. The excess sugar and calories that we consume, are more than our body needs and what it can store, and inevitably gets converted into fat.
This study adds that, decades ago working usually meant manual labor, controlled by the hours of sunrise and sunset. Now, we can work from anywhere at any time of the day or night, affecting our bodies that are conditioned to a more active lifestyle with a standard sleep-awake cycle. Eating whenever, working whenever, being awake whenever, affects how and when our body utilizes the energy we give it. This will take a toll on our metabolism.
Tips to get your meals back on schedule and lose that weight for good:
- The overnight fast: From the time you finish your last meal until the time of your first should range between 12-16 hours. This allows your body the time it needs to take a beat before being put back to work and fueled up.
- Redefine your first meal of the day: the first meal of the day that most know as breakfast is eaten usually right after we wake up. But in the pursuit of weight loss and a strong metabolism, the first meal is usually better off eaten a couple of hours after waking up. Try having some water with your coffee first thing after waking up and a full meal 2 hours after that, maybe even after a workout.
- Put your body to rest: Aim to eat the bulk of your calories early in the day so that when you get to dinner time you are not too hungry. The last meal of the day should be on the smaller end and at least 3 hours before you plan to go to sleep. This allows your body sufficient time to wind down and stop re-engerzing.
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200103111717.htm
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200103111717.htm
