Momentum Issue 5: Engage in time-restricted eating
Eating regimes are popular right now. Intermittent fasting, one meal a day (OMAD), and alternate-day fasting are all terms you may have heard of. But time-restricted eating (TRE) is different. TRE is a lifestyle; it’s not a diet and it’s not a fasting protocol. And it’s a lifestyle that has what seems like endless benefits. This week, give TRE a try.
Importance
TRE involves reducing your eating window and lining it up with your natural rhythms. Our ancestors ate most of their food in the earlier portion of the day and generally went from late afternoon until the next morning without eating. This is how our bodies evolved to function, and if we can align our routines with this, we will experience improved health.
“Human metabolism follows a daily rhythm, with our hormones, enzymes and digestive systems primed for food intake in the morning and afternoon. Many people, however, snack and graze from roughly the time they wake up until shortly before they go to bed.” — Anahad O’Connor
TRE means we’re also eating when our body is optimized to take food - lining up our eating with our natural rhythm. Eating at the same time each day means our body can reliably predict when it will receive food, and will respond accordingly. This leads to better health outcomes in terms of body composition, incidence of chronic illness, and mental health, and will optimize our circadian rhythm with food being one of the top cues telling our body it’s time to be awake.
“A disrupted clock is the mother of all maladies, and, conversely, in most chronic diseases, clock function is compromised.” - Dr. Satchin Panda
Implementation
Reduce your eating window
Figure out an eating schedule that works for you that involves a maximum of a 12-hour feeding window. For example, if you want to eat breakfast at 8 am, make sure you have your last bite of the day by 8 pm. But you will experience increased benefits with shorter eating windows:
“The optimum eating window is between 8 and 11 hours. This is because the health benefits that you get from eating within a 12 hour window double at 11 hours, and double again at 10, and so on, until you reach an eight hour window.” — Dr. Satchin Panda
Eat at the same time, every day
Figure out when you want to eat breakfast, and eat breakfast at this time every single day, even on weekends. Similarly, figure out lunch and dinner times that work for you, and stick with these every day.
Have your last bite at least 2 hours before sleeping
Finish eating and drinking (except water) at least two hours before going to bed, and ideally 3–4 hours.
You can optimize your health simply by changing your routine, namely, when you take your first bite of the day and when you take your last, and eating on a consistent schedule. This isn’t fasting in the formal definition of the word. You won’t be hungry, you won’t have to avoid all the foods you love. You’re simply changing when and how often you eat. That’s it. This week, figure out a breakfast and dinner time that work for your schedule, in a window of ideally less than 12 hours. Stick to these times each day.
If you want to learn more about TRE, check out these articles:
It’s Not What You’re Eating, It’s When You’re Eating