Keeping a longer overnight fast by eating an early dinner and early breakfast may be associated with maintaining a healthy weight. This may be because eating earlier in the day is more in line with circadian rhythms and allows for better calorie burning and appetite regulation.
https://www.isglobal.org/en/-/ayuno-nocturno-y-desayuno-temprano
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I’ve linked to the press release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://ijbnpa.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12966-024-01639-x
From the linked article:
Keeping a Longer Overnight Fast and Eating an Early Breakfast May Be Associated with a Lower Body Mass Index
Study suggests new patterns in the relationship between mealtimes and body weight
To keep weight in check, it is not only important to consider what we eat, but also the times at which we eat. According to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity , there are two specific habits that are associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) in the long term: keeping a longer overnight fast and eating breakfast early . This research was led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) , a centre supported by the “la Caixa” Foundation.
The study involved more than 7,000volunteers aged 40-65 from the GCAT | Genomes for Life cohort, a project led by the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP).
“Our results, in line with other recent studies, suggest that extending the overnight fast could help maintain a healthy weight if accompanied by an early dinner and an early breakfast . We think this may be because eating earlier in the day is more in line with circadian rhythms and allows for better calorie burning and appetite regulation, which can help maintain a healthy weight.
That’s very interesting, because some previous work has shown that timing doesn’t matter too much.
If you eat an early dinner and an early breakfast your fasting time is no longer than if you eat a later dinner and a later breakfast. To have a longer fasting time you’d need to have a late breakfast and an early dinner.
Is this a good study? I only read the abstract because I’m dumb but it said they just found a correlation between people eating later and BMI.
What’s the causation?
It also said that they think appetite regulation is affected by eating time, so in other words “if you eat less food you will get less fat”. Which is a bit different from saying “you can eat just as much food but if you time it right you won’t get fat”.
Bruh I eat breakfast at like 3pm, dinner at like 1am and I’m lean / muscular even tho I don’t do any physical exercise in the last 2 years