Eating Dinner Early Could Help You Lose Body Fat

Eating dinner earlier in the day or skipping it altogether might be the best way to burn body fat. Studies show restricting your meals can curb hunger, burn fat and help you lose weight.

“Eating only during a much smaller window of time than people are typically used to may help with weight loss,” said Courtney Peterson, PhD, who led the study at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “We found that eating between 8am and 2pm followed by an 18-hour daily fast kept appetite levels more even throughout the day, in comparison to eating between 8am and 8pm, which is what the median American does.”

This research, which was presented as part of ObesityWeek 2016, says that people who engage in early time-restricted feeding (eTRF) and eat their last meal by mid-afternoon, and who also don’t eat again until breakfast the following morning, help to their keep appetite levels more balanced through the day. This eating timetable helps you to shed pounds. This is thanks to the body’s internal clock and the fact that aspects of your metabolism are at peak performance during morning hours.

Another recent study at the University of Alabama in Birmingham showed similar results.

Rodent studies were done prior to the human trials, and that research showed that the eTRF approach to weight loss both reduced fat mass and diminished the risk of chronic disease.

Meal Timing Promotes Weight Loss by Naturally Curbing Appetite

Four days during the human study, 11 men and women with excess weight ate between 8am and 2pm (eTRF), and then on another four days they ate between 8am and 8pm. Researchers tested the impact of eTRF on calories burned, fat burned and appetite. Also, all of the participants were on the same feeding schedules, consumed the same amount of calories during each time window and were rigorously tested and supervised.

Studies showed that while eTRF did not affect calories burned, it did reduce daily hunger swings and increased fat burning overall during the night. Metabolic flexibility was also increased, which is the body’s ability to switch between burning carbs and fats. As researchers continue to investigate this study further, future findings could help treat, impact and prevent people from becoming overweight.

“The timing of eating during the day does have an impact on our metabolism,” said Dale Schoeller, PhD, FTOS spokesperson for The Obesity Society and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin. “With additional research on early-time restricted feeding on humans, we can create a more complete picture of whether this innovative method can best help prevent and treat obesity.”