Khaberni - A recent study conducted by researchers at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) reveals that there are two simple habits that could help achieve long-term, sustainable weight loss, indicating that adjusting meal timing can be a pivotal factor in weight control, away from relying on harsh diets or complex dietary systems that focus only on reducing calories.
The results suggest that organizing meal times during the day, such as moving dinner earlier and committing to an early breakfast, might help the body to improve energy utilization efficiency and regulate appetite more balancedly. This trend reinforces the idea that weight loss is not only linked to what we eat, but also how food is distributed throughout the day in alignment with the body's biological rhythm, which may pave the way for simpler and more sustainable methods to maintain weight health over the long term.
According to the study, which included data from more than 7,000 people aged between 40 and 65, combining an early breakfast and an early dinner with extending the nighttime fasting period is associated with a decrease in body mass index after years of follow-up.
The results indicate that people who adhere to this dietary pattern, i.e., refraining from eating for longer hours at night, attain a healthier weight compared to those who eat late or frequently throughout the day.
The researchers surmise that this pattern's compatibility with the body's biologic rhythm (the biological clock) aids in better calorie burning and appetite regulation. However, the study also clarified that skipping breakfast alone does not guarantee weight loss, especially among certain groups, confirming that the crucial factor is not just fasting, but the timing of meals distribution throughout the day.
Scientists confirm that these findings do not prove a direct causal relationship between meal timing and weight loss, but they are an important addition to a growing scientific field known as chrononutrition, which focuses on understanding how the timing of meals and their distribution throughout the day affects various body functions. This field not only cares about what we eat or its quantity, but extends to include the timing of eating and its relation to the body's biological rhythm, such as the biological clock, hormone regulation, energy burning, and appetite. This modern vision suggests that aligning meal times with the body's natural system may play an important role in improving metabolic health and reducing the risk of weight gain, but these hypotheses still require further studies and clinical trials for decisive confirmation, according to the website "sciencealert".
The study indicates that implementing a simple modification to the daily lifestyle, like eating dinner early and starting breakfast early as well, may positively reflect on overall health and help in controlling weight over the long term, without the need to follow complex diets or harsh deprivation systems.
