Meal times impact weight loss

They say timing is everything, right? Some of the latest research in food consumption and weight loss is investigating how timing our eating impacts our metabolism and how what we eat impacts our timing:  our “inner clock,” otherwise called our circadian rhythm. While we all know that excessive caloric and fat intake can directly lead to obesity, it can also disrupt our biological clock.  Our circadian rhythm, among other things, controls our sleep cycles and, as we know, disturbed sleep cycles have a deleterious effect on body composition and weight gain. Thus, it stands to reason then that a high fat diet may play a role in this negative feedback loop.

Keeping an eye on the clock

Recently, scientists have discovered, at least in fruit flies, that genes responsible for certain aspects of our metabolism and immunity are affected by circadian rhythms and the various internal clocks that intimately interact with each other. Body fat, again at least in fruit flies, appears to have its own clock, which can be influenced by timing of feeding. In other words, for example, when the flies were fed late at night (not a good thing as we all now know) this altered the cycling of genes controlled by the fat-body clock, resulting in a negative effect on the fly’s fertility.

Obviously, this is only a scientific inquiry and further, we do not want to extrapolate that human’s fertility is adversely affected by eating times. Yet it is interesting to note the intimate relationship between food, eating times, circadian rhythms and the existence of other specific clocks within the organism.

On the other hand, studies have found that regular eating times and extending the daily fasting period may override the adverse health effects of a high fat diet, helping to prevent obesity, diabetes and liver disease in laboratory mice. The study reported that mice limited to eating during an eight hour period are healthier than mice that eat freely throughout the day, regardless of the quality and content of their diet.  Even though the mice limited to an eight hour window for food intake were given a high fat diet, they were still protected from the adverse effects of this type of diet and showed improvements in their metabolic and physiological rhythms. Basically, they gained less weight and suffered less liver damage.

Again, this study demonstrates that energy metabolism and, by extension food consumption, involves an intricate network of signaling and genetic pathways, including nutrient-sensing mechanisms and the circadian system. This study goes on to suggest that restricting meal times might be a lifestyle change worth considering as it can possibly help people manage both their weight and food consumption.

While I maintain a “keep it simple” type of philosophy when it comes to weight loss (i.e., eat whole, unprocessed foods as much as possible and magic will happen), the science of diet, metabolism and how the body responds to different types of food continues to evolve, offering new insights that are worth exploring.

Michael Fuhrman D.C.

EAT RIGHT, STAY HEALTHY