About a week ago, I covered another study showing how important it is not to eat in the evening or close to going to bed as having your last meal earlier in the day improved sleep onset, total sleep time, and sleep quality by quite extreme measures. This is logical as any ongoing digestion will interfere with sleep. If you have not read it, please do as it will add to this article and I do not want to repeat myself too much.
This time we’ll look at a study, summarized by Examine.com, on early or late time-restricted eating and its effect on cardiometabolic health. Again, the results should be common sense, but researchers or scientists seldom put one and two together as they have no training in any of the important fields such as biology, physiology or biochemistry. They simply can’t see the forest for the trees.
And yes, I’ve covered this topic many times, as I’ve recommended not to eat late for over 20+ years and it’s very, very important for health and longevity.
Quick Summary
In this 3-month randomized controlled trial in 108 participants with overweight or obesity and one metabolic syndrome criterion, either followed an early time-restricted diet or a late time-restricted diet where the researcher looked at several parameters of weight loss as well as cardiometabolic changes such as fasting glucose and blood pressure.
Key study details
“The participants were assigned to one of the following hypocaloric diets based on their chronotype:
- Early diet: eating between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Later diet: eating between 12 p.m. and 8 p.m.
- All-day diet: eating between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.”
The early diet is in sync with our natural circadian rhythm and will allow for entering sleep in a fasted state which is necessary for enhanced detoxification, autophagy, tissue repair and hormone secretion.
The later diet will work against our natural circadian rhythm, especially if you feel stressed and overproduce cortisol to mobilize energy. It will also not allow for a fasted sleep and will thus inhibit detoxification, tissue repair and totally eliminate any autophagy from taking place (your body’s renewal system that keeps you from aging at an accelerated pace.)
The all-day diet, while a better option than the later diet (as long as you eat the same amount and same number of meals,) will also interfere with sleep and all the important processes such as detoxification, tissue repair and autophagy.
“The participants with a morning chronotype were randomized to the early diet or the all-day diet, and those with an evening chronotype were randomized to the later diet or the all-day diet.”
Chronotypes are simply a temporary definition of your lifestyle, and it has absolutely nothing to do with “genetics” or any similar pseudoscience as some evil scumbags want you to believe.
It’s all very simple and logical, as we are made to wake up with the sun and wind down and go to sleep after the sunset. If you are aligned with your natural circadian rhythm you will wake up early, somewhere between 4.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m., full of energy and you will go to bed around 8.00 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. to get all the benefits of sleep. That is natural and ideal, anything else will take its toll on your health.
So, if you have fucked-up your circadian rhythm by being programmed by society and late TV shows, you might go to bed later and thus be defined as an “evening chronotype” or a “night owl.” If so, you better start working on going to bed earlier and earlier or you will ruin your health.
“Reductions in weight and visceral fat did not differ between the groups, but the percentage reduction in fat mass was approximately 1.2% greater in the early diet than the other groups.”
Since the trial only lasted for 3 months, the difference in fat loss will not be that great if the meals are the same. It will simply come down to better hormonal status in those following the early diet, as in those going to sleep in a fasted state and thus getting a maximized release of growth hormone during the first part of the night. The interesting thing is that the early diet group lost a bit more fat mass but not weight, which indicates that they (re)gained muscle mass without any additional exercise, which again is solely hormone related.
With that said, if you take this natural approach into habit and do it for the rest of your life, that will be quite the difference.
“Additionally, the early diet reduced diastolic blood pressure compared to the all-day diet (−4 mmHg) and fasting glucose compared to the later diet (−6 mg/dL). Changes in blood lipids and C-reactive protein did not differ between the groups.”
Of course, by following a more natural approach to feeding, as in having your last meal at least 4 to 6 hours before going to bed, you will enter your sleep in a fasted state which will enhance all essential processes taking place during sleep. As you can detoxify better, your toxic load will decrease, which means less stress and damage to the body 24/7. As tissue repair and healing is accelerated, there will be less damage, which over time also will decrease the stress on the body as it will struggle less during the day. And as autophagy finally can take place for a few hours late every night, you will replace some badly functioning cells with new ones, which will increase the efficiency of your body and all its processes in the long run. This is why fasting is such an efficient and important tool to use a few times every year.
All this will decrease blood pressure and especially help the cells to better metabolize glucose, especially if you’ve been deceived into consuming carbohydrates. Of course, the effect would be a thousand times more pronounced if you were to follow our species-appropriate and natural human diet of animal-based foods — as we can make all the glucose we need in the exact amounts at all times by the natural function of gluconeogenesis and thus never risk having elevated blood glucose that causes extreme damage.
Examine.com’s take
“The results align with other evidence, which suggests that early time-restricted eating improves glycemic control and blood pressure, but the size of the effect may not be clinically significant.”
Yes, it aligns with other evidence and also with human physiology and biochemistry, as well as with common sense. All you need to do is to do a little research on sleep and how digestion interferes with sleep. It’s all documented and acknowledged in biology, physiology and biochemistry.
Again, if your last meal is big, it should be 6 hours before you go to bed. If it’s medium-sized, it should be at least about 4 hours before bed. And if it’s very small or just a snack, it should be 2.5 to 3 hours before bed at the latest.
This approach will guarantee that your sleep is not disturbed by digestion. And from there, work on timing and consistency, and on improving sleep hygiene factors such as the right low temperature, clean air, no light, no electronics, no sounds, etcetera.
If you need help with any kind of health problems or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.
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