When should you eat is just as important as what you eat

Pretty junky article, because it doesn't define the goal, and therefore cannot give any recommendations either. Is the goal weight loss? Is the goal sleep quality? Is the goal how to maximize muscle protein synthesis (and add weight)?

When it comes to weight loss (and when the right muscle sparing tools are in place, also fat loss) total Calories in vs Calories out dominates. Don't get fooled, both sides of the equation are moving targets so it's been extremely difficult to be precise with it even in research. and water weight changes add further confusion.

When it comes to other hormonal aspects though? meal timing matters, obviously. An extreme example that makes it obvious -- If you eat ~1500 calories from fats/carbs in one sitting, you're likely gonna want a nap in short order as your blood sugar and insulin excreted rise. Does that mean you'll gain weight? Depends on your caloric needs.

Another example -- Eating even 3 hours before bed time can affect sleep. So, for sleep quality, it's best to eat earlier and then stop.

Another example -- taking in caffeine blocks the clearing of adenosine (the feel tired hormone). So if you drink caffeine in the first ~90minutes of waking then you dont actually clear the adenosine as well, and then when the caffeine hits it's half life (about 6 hours later) you'll feel tired again. Solution: let your body clear adenosine naturally before you consume caffeine.

Two years ago I stopped eating sugar and flour. I also started eating on a schedule. Breakfast when I wake up between 6am and 730am, lunch around 1pm, dinner around 7pm. No I’m between snacks except some coffee, water, and chewing gum.

The results are that I’m in the best shape and health of my life.

I sleep much better if I stop eating after 5 pm.

One of the Keto-Doctors on youtube suggested that you can still eat gouda cheese if you feel seriously hungry, but should avoid sugar and carbs.

If I'm in the mood I drink kefir before bed, a certain kind seems to give me slapstick zombie dreams. If I have cream cheese with a certain gut-flora supplement, I might have space-dreams, where I fly space-crafts.

The authors take aim at your daily - or circadian - rhythm. This is difficult because the circadian cycle is superimposed on natures annual cycle.

If your goal is weight loss, you should concentrate on the time of year - not the time of day.

The 3 months between the fall equinox and the winter solstice (Oct - Dec) are the most difficult for dieters. Not because of the holidays, but because nature is preparing you to hibernate.

The best period to start dieting is between the winter solstice and the spring equinox (Jan - Mar). Each day tends to become easier to control your eating.

The period between the spring and fall equinoxes (Apr - Sep) are usually the easiest to maintain healthy eating habits.

Yes, there can be exceptions, but if you chart your daily weight, you will see the pattern.

The good news is that NOW (Jan) is the best time of the year to start a diet. Don't put it off because at this time of the year nature will conspire to assist you.

Anecdotal evidence of two people, my wife and I have in the last couple of years eaten our dinner around 5.30-6pm (we used to eat 7.30-8). We both work from home and often either eat with the kids or soon after them.

We don't really snack in the evening, maybe a small chocolate (as in a nice one from a chocolate box) at about 8pm.

We both sleep better and I have certainly lost a little weight. I would probably say I'm also less hungry in the morning too.

It's a routine that works really well for us, we are in the kitchen doing food for the kids anyway so why not eat with them or at least cook at the same time (they get big lunches at school). It's also opened up our evenings a little for more hobbies (and occasionally work).

The article seems to be doing that most common journalistic trope: misinterpreting data and selling you a false narrative. Most of it is about when you gain more weight, not what is more or less healthy (it's not like you're getting sick).

  On the other hand, animals are normally the most insulin resistant during their typical sleeping hours.
  Studies suggest the same phenomena occur in humans. It turns out that mealtime has a big effect on what
  happens to your blood sugar levels. If you eat the same meal in the morning and at night, your blood
  sugar will increase more in the evening than in the morning. Eating the same meal early, like for 
  breakfast, and at night can affect blood sugar levels differently.

So the time will change your blood sugar levels. If your blood sugar levels are fine, and the foods you eat don't skyrocket your blood sugar (low-GI for example), this isn't an issue. Eat low-GI foods at night to prevent insulin from increasing your blood sugar and stopping fat burning. (Some cardio before bed and before your meal might be helpful too, for a number of reasons)

  Fat cells also appear the most insulin sensitive early in the day, with a peak at noon; they are about
  50 percent more sensitive midday than they are at midnight. This means that your body is primed to eat
  at certain times. In fact, eating at the “wrong” time can throw off everything. In a study of mice,
  those given access to food at the “wrong” time, when they typically sleep, ate more when food first
  became available—10 percent more total calories during a day—and gained more weight.

So watch your portions, and change the proportion of fat you eat so 50% of it from a night-time meal is eaten in the morning.

  Research is starting to show the same effects in humans. One study on weight loss that compared the
  times of eating among participants over a 20-week period revealed that those who ate lunch earlier lost
  more weight than those who ate it later. A related study found that those who ate later burned less
  energy than those who ate earlier.

So eat your least-caloric-intense meal at night, like a salad.

The whole article seems to send the wrong signals. What you eat actually seems more important than when you eat it, based on this article. IMHO, you should focus on your nutrition first, weight loss second. Keeping weight off requires habit-forming. If eating later at night is more convenient for you, do it! Just do it smart.

I read the article. My summary:

It is better for your health to eat earlier than later. The worst time to eat is at night.

While an ideal time to eat isn’t given, it’s probably somewhere between 8am-1pm.

This title is mangled and ungrammatical. How about "When you eat is just as important as what you eat"?

I discovered that the relationship between when I eat and when I exercise is as important for fat loss as what I eat or that I exercise. Lift weights at 3pm, don't eat until 6, and there's a 3-hour window where my body is both 1) low on "ready energy" and 2) appetite suppressed, both due to the exercise, and tends to burn fat. Small amounts, to be sure, but enough to trend things downward. Whereas if I eat shortly after working out, my weight remains steady.

While I think timing is important (my sleep improves significantly when I stop eating several hours before sleeping, even better if the last meal is high fiber), suggesting that timing is equally important to food quality is obvious nonsense. Try eating just garbage but at all the "right" times and see how that works for you.

The earlier you eat, the less hungry you are, ergo you eat less.

Then you go to sleep and your body suppresses hunger overnight, and in the morning, it’s much easier to eat less or skip breakfast completely.

Weight = calories - burned energy

How you limit the calories or burn the energy is up to you.

The article is paywalled. Even if (and I haven't read the article) the explanatory power of mean outcomes is equal between diet content and diet timing, it's absurd to think that the worst-case timing (as long as one isn't starving) is as bad as the worst-case content (again, as long as one isn't starving or eating objective poisons).

Having an average daily American intake all in one go right before bed or spread out equally among 5 minute intervals can't be as bad as a diet mostly consisting mostly of deep fat fried chocolate bars at average American meal timings.

More pop science trash journalism. Pass.

> When should you eat is just as important as what you eat

And they don't tell us when to eat either.

It's just another article about "there is a correlation in mice" and continue with a bunch of truisms for good measure.