Working with your body’s natural rhythm

Alignment with the rhythms of life brings our metabolism into its fullest force.

– Marc David

When it comes to eating, have you ever considered timing? With food, as with so many things in life, timing IS everything. Well maybe not everything, but it can be a simple way to help with weight loss, better digestion and increased energy levels.

So what exactly is timing when it comes to food?

Timing related to food means tapping into your body’s natural metabolic state or body temperature at various moments of the day to help processes such as digestion and burning fat.

Of course, each person is unique and every body will react differently, but here are some general guidelines.

Morning:

As soon as you wake up, your body temperature begins to rise – your metabolism is gearing up for the day. Eating in the morning actually increases your metabolic rate, enabling you lose weight more easily. Food is like adding wood to a furnace – it makes it burn more efficiently.

As a general rule, the hotter the season or climate, the less people tend to eat for breakfast – you may have noticed this to be the case for you and this is fine if you feel it works for you.

If you have dinner about 3 hours before going to bed, and try to leave 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, you are giving your body the optimum time it needs to burn fat. If you wake up in the morning feeling sluggish and not hungry, try eating less and earlier at dinner.

Midday:

Body temperature is at its highest when the sun is highest in the sky. Between 12 and 13:30 is your peak metabolic time, which is why it makes sense for lunch to be the biggest meal of the day as it is in many traditional cultures.

Afternoon:

Between 14:00 and 17:00, your body is busy digesting lunch and energy levels tend to drop. The natural rhythm of the body is to slow down during this period. You may have noticed that you have less energy after lunch – it might even be your least productive time of day.

Late Afternoon:

Between around 16:00 and 18:00, your body temperature starts rising again and energy levels pick up. If you know you are unable to have dinner until much later, have a small snack with healthy fats and protein so that you have a smaller dinner later in the evening.

Evening:

This is when our bodies start slowing down in preparation for sleep and our metabolism is actually at its lowest.

It therefore makes sense to eat dinner as early and as light as possible. This will actually help you sleep better and wake up hungrier for breakfast, when your body’s metabolism is in a better state to handle food. It also enables the liver to go into fat burning mode, an crucial state for weight loss.

An interesting side note…

One of the ways sumo wrestlers gain weight is by skipping breakfast and having a big, late dinner right before going to bed. If this sounds like you and you are trying to lose weight, try simply shifting your eating schedule – this could work wonders.

Give it a try

Do you recognize yourself in any of this? If you often find yourself in sumo wrestler mode – skipping breakfast and eating a large dinner late at night, why not try shuffling your food around for a week and see how you feel?

Source:
The Slow Down Diet: Eating for Pleasure, Energy and Weight Loss by Marc David