A person’s diet has a huge influence on his health, but there are other things besides the food he eats that can affect the state of his body. According to a new study, timing your meals correctly may be the key to preventing obesity.

Recent findings reveal that despite your best efforts to eat healthy, the timing of your meals can undo everything. Eating before bedtime, cramming your meals together or scheduling your meals too far apart can negate the effects of a healthy diet. In order to maximize its benefits, you need to take your body’s metabolism into consideration.

Meal timing, body fat and overall health

Your body’s metabolism is influenced by your circadian rhythm, which is your body’s biological clock. While the normal body clock follows a day-and-night cycle, there are others — like people who work on a night shift — that have this in reverse.

In a study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined the effects of meal times on a person’s body weight. It was the first study to demonstrate that meal timing, in relation to waking times and sleeping times, can cause either weight loss or weight gain. The researchers conducted their experiment in a real world setting and took melatonin activity into account. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland that lets the body know when it’s time to sleep.

The researchers examined body fat, body mass index (BMI) and the timing of food consumption. Then, they compared these with the time of day and the person’s body clock. The data was collected from 110 college-aged participants who were enrolled in a 30-day observational study to document sleep times and daily meal intake using a mobile phone app to time-stamp, document and record the participants’ food intake over seven consecutive days of their regular routines.

On one of the nights during the 30-day study, participants were studied at the BWH Center for Clinical Investigation to assess the timing of their melatonin onset, marking onset of sleep and their body composition.

“We found that the timing of food intake relative to melatonin onset, a marker of a person’s biological night, is associated with higher percent body fat and body mass index and not associated with the time of day, amount or composition of food intake,” said Andrew W. McHill, lead author of the study and a researcher with the Division of Sleep and Circadian.

The findings suggest that the timing of when calories are consumed, relative to your own biological timing, may be more important for health than the actual time of day.

The study revealed that individuals with high body fat percentages consumed most of their calories shortly before going to sleep when melatonin levels were high, while those with lower percentages of body fat tended to go to bed a few hours after their last meal.

However, no relationship was detected between the clock hour of food intake, caloric amount, meal consumption, activity or exercise level or sleep duration and either of these body composition measures.

Researchers noted that the population of college-aged individuals may not represent the entire population in terms of food choices and body clock.

Still, the findings provided evidence that food consumption during the circadian evening plays an important role in body composition.

A 2010 study showed that snacking at night is associated with poor dietary quality and that skipping meals and snacking instead had affected the eating patterns and lifestyle of older adolescents.

In the same article, a 2013 study evaluated the role of food-timing in a weight-loss effectiveness program among 252 women and 258 men with BMIs above 31.4 and followed a 20-week weight loss treatment. The results revealed that late-lunch eaters lost weight at a slower rate, even though both groups had the same calories, diet, physical activity and amount of sleep.

At the end of the day, it all boils down to discipline and balance. Eat your healthy meals at the right time. Wait a few hours after your last meal before going to bed.

Sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

Center4Research.org