You’ve probably heard theories about how carbo-loading in the morning can help you lose weight, but fascinating new research proves that what time of day you eat really does matter. Eating exclusively between the hours of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. might help you lose weight more easily, according to a small study by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In the first human study of early time-restricted feeding, researchers recruited 11 participants and observed the differences in how their bodies worked during a series of days when they ate their meals between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., versus days of eating exclusively between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.. On days when participants didn’t eat after 2 p.m., their appetite levels were more even (read: fewer cravings), they burned fat faster and more efficiently for several hours at night, and their metabolic flexibility, or ability to switch between burning carbs and fats, improved. If weight loss is your goal, that’s not too shabby. MORE: How Nutritionists Avoid Gaining Weight in Winter
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“Eating only during a much smaller window of time than people are typically used to may help with weight loss,” said Courtney Peterson, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “We found that eating between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. followed by an 18-hour daily fast kept appetite levels more even throughout the day, in comparison to...