When it comes to dropping body fat, a lot of people have their own strategies that make it easier...
And this study I'm about to tell you about is testament to this.
In these subjects, eating a larger load of calories at lunch was better for fat loss when compared to eating more at dinner (1).
Now before I brief you on the study and findings, let me make this point clear - there's no MAGICAL time to eat or not eat for fat loss.
This article isn't about telling you that if you're eating all your calories at dinner, then "you're doing it wrong." It's all about whatever is easiest for you!
Fat loss and dieting is all about the fight for satiety and winning the mental battle - once you've done that you're on the highway to maximum success!
We all have our special dietary numbers we need to hit everyday - and whenever we hit them is up to us. But one thing is the same for us all - we have ot make it as easy as we can on ourselves.
That might be fasting until 12pm and then eating afterwards, or fasting until 5:30pm and eating afterwards - we're all different with what we prefer for our respective lifestyles.
But in this study into 80 obese women with an average age of 34 years, the group who ate most of their calories at lunch lost more weight.
The study was set up as follows:
Dinner group - 15% of daily intake calories at breakfast and 15% with their snacks, 20% at lunch and 50% intake at dinner.
Lunch group - 15% of daily intake calories at breakfast and 15% with their snacks, 50% at lunch and 20% intake at dinner.
So what did they find?
After the 12 weeks both groups lost a great load of fat, however the lunch group lost an extra 1.42 kilos and had better rates of fasting insulin and insulin resistance measurements than the dinner group.
Now it wasn't a wildly controlled study - subjects were just given advice by nutrionists and were advised on what to eat.
But in many ways this may be its strength; giving loose advice to obese subjects to eat more of their calories at lunch which was adhered to quite easily, may mean we need to dive into this research further.
Remember: This doesn't mean it's going to be the best bet for YOU.
But what it does mean is experimenting with the majority of your macronutrient intake at certain times, be it lunch, dinner or breakfast - may lead to you discovering what is better for greater dietary adherence and thus greater fat loss.
Do some experiments of your own!
"Stay Fit, Stay Flexed!"
Reference
(1) Madjd A, Taylor MA, Delavari A, Malekzadeh R, Macdonald IA, Farshchi HR. Beneficial effect of high energy intake at lunch rather than dinner on weight loss in healthy obese women in a weight-loss program: a randomized clinical trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2016; pii: ajcn134163. [Epub ahead of print]
Author
Dayne Hudson