Tips from Our Durham Personal Trainers: How Irregular Eating Patterns Can Hinder Weight Loss
Do you ever postpone eating because you’re busy, in the middle of a project, or too lazy to put something together? Many of us are guilty of this pattern that leads to overeating and binging later on in the day. A calorie is a calorie right? Two recent studies published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society suggest that it’s not just what you eat, but when you eat that can alter your weight loss goals. Research suggests that an irregular eating schedule could set you up for obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes—regardless of how many total calories you’re eating!
One of the studies examined eating schedules and patterns and found a possible link between obesity and eating more at night vs. throughout the day. The other study found that people that constantly ate six meals a day had better overall health than those with inconsistent eating patterns.
These researchers say,
“We found that adults consuming calories during regular meals—at similar times from one day to [the] next—were less obese than people who have irregular meals, despite consuming more calories overall.” –Gerda Pot, PhD
How is this possible, you may ask? It could be due to the schedule that our bodies are on, from appetite, digestion, and the metabolism of fat. Our bodies all follow a schedule that repeats every 24 hours, so eating outside of our normal schedule could throw off our internal body clock. The result? Weight gain.
So next time you think about skipping a meal or working through lunch… Think again!
