Timing your meals can be a game changer
If I told you there is a tool that will benefit your metabolism, muscle mass, hunger control, sleep and would decrease you risk for diseases together with your weight? Would you believe me? There is such a thing indeed and has been around for a long time. Several fasting types are popular nowadays: 5:2 diet, complete alternate day fasting, religious fasting, Ramadan and time restricted feeding. Their attributes vary, but they are all beneficial one way or another. A couple of these have been becoming popular for weight loss or treatments as they are beneficial for the human body. Time restricted feeding will be put under the lens in this article.
How it works and the benefits
After waking up you get coffee and breakfast, you rush to work, and depending on your schedule, you snack, have lunch, then snack again, have dinner, and snack again right before going to bed to get a good night’s sleep. Have you ever thought about giving a break to your digestive system as well? No, it is still digesting when you go to bed, at least most of the time. Modern lifestyle has changed the time frame within which food is consumed. This is not your fault, but once you know of time restricted feeding you can easily change these habits. Time restricted feeding speaks for itself; it means there is a time window within a 24 hour period when the consumption of food is supposed to happen, the less the hours the greater the benefits, but possibly 8-10 hours or less should be assigned for the meals.
Humans together with other animals evolved to be able to go with very little energy intake for days, or even nothing at all. Some animals survive scarcity by becoming dormant or hibernate. Mammals possess organs such as the liver and fat tissue that are great storage for energy and nutrients. The abundance of food especially together with sedentary lifestyle lead to a decreased quality of life and various lifestyle diseases. Changing meal-related habits, meaning not only the quality and quantity, but also when food is eaten leads to several bodily changes.
A major beneficial factor is that inflammation decreases in the whole body. Moreover, while fasting your blood flow is not focused around your digestion tract, therefore the brain can use it and you become more alert and have increased mental acuity. It appears to have a positive impact on the gut microbiome too. In addition, it has antidiabetic effect since it reduces insulin resistance. Other age and lifestyle related disorders seem to improve, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. Its effect on the cardiac system can be explained by the low heart rate and blood pressure while fasting and increased resistance of the brain and heart to stress.
Night time eating is associated with reduced sleep duration and poor sleep quality, which can lead to insulin resistance and increased risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Furthermore, eating at abnormal circadian times (i.e. late at night) can disrupt the sleep pattern, as your body might think it’s already next day and starts producing different hormones as it would do at waking hours.
Seems like a magical tool, right? Nothing complicated though, anyone can do it. The biggest part of it is the mind-game. But now you know, and can convince yourself not to grab that snack at 11 pm. And with that improve your quality of life drastically.
