Recently, researchers have found that eating meals earlier in the day can help people lose weight.
They found that eating 70% of each day’s calories in breakfast and lunch and the other 30% in dinner can help boost weight loss by about 25%.
In the study, the team examined the heart-healthy Mediterranean diet.
Participants cut their intake by 600 calories a day. Their calorie breakdown was 55% carbohydrates, 30% fat and 15% protein, with over 30 grams of fiber daily.
The team found that at the end of three months, the participants who ate 70% of their daily calories through lunch lost 18 pounds.
On the other hand, people who ate just 55% of their calories through lunch lost 14 pounds.
In addition, the people in the first group lost more body fat and used insulin more effectively, which can help ward off diabetes.
The finding shows that weight loss not only depends on eating fewer calories than the body uses up but also when to eat those calories.
Another recent study from the University of Murcia in Spain shows that timing is everything when it comes to calorie intake.
Researchers found that not getting calories when the body really need them can make it harder to lose weight.
They tested 420 participants on a 20-week weight-loss program.
All the people followed a Mediterranean lifestyle with lunch being the main meal of the day. Half were “early” lunch eaters, eating before 3 p.m., and half ate later.
The team found the early lunch eaters lost much more weight than those who ate later, even though both groups had the same daily calorie intake and the same amount of exercise.
The finding shows that eating calories in the early time of the day can speed up weight loss.
The finding is published in the International Journal of Obesity.
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