Does time of eating make a difference?

[SittingNextToIt]

Obviously there's a lot of support for window-ed eating/intermittent fasting - but that's not what I am asking about here. Does the actual time of day when you eat make a difference to metabolism/glucose levels and yes, weight gain?

I have recently lost 14 kilos with plain old calorie counting but have now stalled. My main eating pattern -for the last 20 years - and I am 40 now - has been - no breakfast, large lunch and large dinner. I say "large" as in clearly they caused me to gain the 14 kilos I have now lost. But even with calorie counting, with no breakfast I am HANGRY by 1 pm, then super tired and lethaergic by 3 pm, and HANGRY by dinner time and prone to evening snacking just because.

I wondered, if there any merit at all - in whipping this right around, and distributing my 1200 calories a day differently? For example - introducing breakfast and having my highest calorie meal first thing, then tapering down as the day goes? If I am not stuffing face with white carbs, and packing in protein, ten if breakfast is introduced as the biggest meal of the day - will it enable a smaller lunch, and a small dinner and help metabolism or re start weight loss after the current plateau?

Any experience anyone?

@SittingNextToIt , what sort of things are you eating?

I have lost 14 kilos at a fairly slow and steady rate over the last 4.5 months. This has been done on about 1200 calories a day (bearing several exceptions in mind, across Christmas, new Years and all of our birthdays and various other milestones). On average the 1200 a day excludes white carbohydrates entirely, and includes lean proteins/meats, and lots of fruit and veg, and yes, some complex carbohydrates.

Edit to say I am very proud of the 14 kilo loss so far. Something clearly shifted after years and years. And something clearly has worked. However, I have, now stalled. I still have 7-8 kilos to lose.

I am very unwilling to stop calorie counting and suddenly change tack to cutting out entire food groups - so I'd like to stick to counting calories, perhaps less eyeballing than that of late (note to self) - but experiement with the eating times and window to avoid HANGRY lunches and dinners!

Short answer, yes.

Its worth mapping out on a timescale when you are most active and eating to match your energy requirements.

I wake up super early - 5 am and tend to get a lot of mental work/planning/emails done before kids arise at 7 am.

My day is full on with work and meetings till about 4 pm, at which point kids and dinners and activities and bedtime occupy us till 730 pm. Dinner and lunch happen mindlessly, hurriedly in the 1-7 pm window. Then evening snacking - also mindlessly - but body has shut down in front of Netflix by then.

Despite this I have managed to do 1200 a day and have clearly lost.

But I am now thinking that i could experiemnt with distributing the 1200 differently - maybe 0730 am with a big meal?

You might find it interesting to get a continuous glucose monitor and track how you respond to different types of food at various times of day, whether you eat while sedentary or just before or during activity etc, and see how that correlates with how you feel.

Yes I would definitely try switching your meals round if it’s not working for you right now.

I have large breakfast: porridge oats, fruit, kefir

large lunch: jacket potato and tuna (nuts dried fruit and apple as a side!)

then dinner I’m trying to make simple watery soup- like homemade leek and potato or miso soup.

with a large breakfast and lunch I’m not really hungry in the evenings.

So my eating routine works well. Not massively lost weight yet- but not fully jumped in with both feet- but feeling good and can handle the day really well.