Timing Trick Heads Off Metabolic Disaster

Metabolic syndrome is a perfect storm of factors that increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes.

These factors include high blood pressure, belly fat, high blood sugar, and abnormal lipids.

The mainstream loves to blame metabolic syndrome on a poor diet. But it’s not nearly that simple.

Yes, WHAT you eat is critical… but so is WHEN.

A few months ago, I told you about a study showing that following a 5:2 plan (eating regularly for five days and fasting for two) improved blood sugar control.

This is a version of intermittent fasting, the name for going periods without eating.

More recently, a study showed the benefits of a different kind of intermittent fasting. This time, researchers studied the impact of eating within an 8-10-hour window.

Participants ate within one hour of waking up and stopped eating at least three hours before bed.

Results showed that following this eating schedule for three months improved their HbA1C (a marker of blood sugar control), and reductions in body weight, BMI (body mass index), and belly fat.

These are all significant factors in metabolic syndrome… and they all improved simply by changing WHEN food was eaten, as opposed to WHAT or how much.

Factoring in the timing of when you eat is vital because your body processes food differently based on the time of day.

When you eat a late-night snack, you’re not only eating extra calories… you’re eating them at a time when your body is more likely to STORE instead of BURN them.

You can see how that would set you up for failure no matter how diligent you are during the rest of the day.

I practice intermittent fasting to stay as in sync with my body’s clock as possible. And I can tell you from experience that eating during an 8-10-hour window is relatively easy to do.

This means if you eat breakfast at 8 a.m., you’ll eat your last meal of the day between 4 and 6 p.m. Why not give it a try?

P.S. The WORST dinner time for your heart.

SOURCE:

Emily N.C. Manoogian, Michael J. Wilkinson, Monica O’Neal, et al., Time-Restricted Eating in Adults With Metabolic Syndrome. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2024; DOI: 10.7326/M24-0859