Brits looking to shed the pounds have long been advised to stop eating late at night, instead making lunch the day’s heartiest meal.
Yet it’s not just about what you eat for lunch, but when you eat it, that could prove vital for weight loss, one dietician has warned.
According to Lena Bakovic, a registered dietician based in Florida, the ‘optimal’ time sits around four to five hours after you’ve eaten breakfast.
‘If someone wakes at 7am and eats a nutrient-dense breakfast at 8 am, then they are likely to tune into their hunger cues roughly four to five hours later, at 12 to 1 pm,’ she said.
Eating lunch later may make it harder for the body to metabolise the food and could result in people skipping dinner and/or snacking closer to bedtime, she said.
Scientists in Spain have also suggested that late lunch eaters burned fewer calories at rest than those who ate at 1pm.
According the study, published in the journal Nutrients, those who grabbed lunch at 4:30pm also had unstable blood sugar throughout the day, and took longer to transform carbs into energy.
Previous research has shown that not eating for a prolonged period can cause blood sugar to spike when you do eat — especially if the meal is high in carbohydrates.
It’s not just about what you eat for lunch, but when you eat it that could prove vital for weight loss , one dietician has warned
According to Lena Bakovic, a registered dietician based in Florida, the ‘optimal’ time sits around four to five hours after you’ve eaten breakfast
Spikes are known to increase the risk of a massive drop in blood sugar later in the day, which can trigger the release of hormones that elicit extreme hunger pangs, making you more likely to snack.
Speaking to Real Simple, Ms Bakovic said: ‘It’s possible that eating an earlier lunch — shortly after breakfast — will contribute to greater hunger later in the day and prior to dinnertime.
‘This can lead to snacking on less-than-healthy food choices.
‘With eating lunch later in the day and closer to dinnertime, this may lead some individuals to skipping dinner and then feeling hungry closer to bedtime.
‘This could promote snacking on salty and/or sugary foods with low nutritional value.’
But eating at different times each day may also impact our health, she warned, as it could disrupt the circadian rhythms that govern how our body transitions from day to night and back again.
‘As with sleep-wake cycles being consistent and important for our bodies to feel in sync on a day-to-day basis, the same can be said with our mealtimes,’ she said.
‘Thus, it’s beneficial to have lunch around the same time each day, as this consistent prompting of hunger and fullness cues syncs to our sleep-wake cycles.’
Earlier this month, one Italian longevity expert also claimed that the type of food consumed over lunch too, can boost your chances of reaching 100.
According to Dr Valter Longo, a researcher in ageing and biological science at the University of Southern California, a light meal of nuts and fruit is more beneficial ‘because you don’t have the insulin release and all the postprandial consequences’ of a bigger lunch.
Dr Longo — who founded the famous 5:2 diet — said you should also aim to eat early enough, leaving 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the following day.
This is because, scientists say, it activates autophagy, a process that breaks down and recycles old or damaged parts of a cell — helping to slow down ageing.
