The Best Times To Eat

When you eat is just as important as what you eat.  Timing of your meals and snacks can contribute to how efficiently your metabolism works, how well you lose weight, and how full you feel during the day. These are all important parts of maintaining a healthy, happy body.

Breakfast. Remember break-fast literally means breaking the fast. Consider the act of eating breakfast as the jumpstart to your body’s engine.  The sooner you eat after waking up the faster your body will start burning calories and get your “fire” or metabolism burning.  Maintaining the “fast” will keep your body in calorie conservation mode and prevent you from getting that boost of energy you get when you eat a nutritious breakfast.

From our partner

Do you still have gout symptoms even though you're taking medication? You’re not alone. The Kadence study is a clinical research study for adults with uncontrolled gout. Learn More

Snacks. Eating healthy snacks between meals keeps your metabolism going and helps keep your hunger under control so that you can feel good and avoid being hungrier and overindulging at lunch and dinner.

From our partner

People 16+ years old struggling with lupus: Find out if the PHOENYCS FLY Study may be for you. Study-related care provided at no cost.

Bedtime. Believe it or not, there is no certain time after which you should not eat. The key is to avoid eating anything 2 hours before bedtime.  For example, if you go to bed at 10 pm, avoid eating after 8 pm.  This allows you to remain active for a few hours and allows you to burn some of the calories consumed, instead of becoming sedentary immediately after eating a large meal. It is also important to avoid eating too many carbohydrates at night because your body will not have enough time to burn off the excess energy and it will be converted and stored as fat.  Limit carbohydrates to 2 servings at your evening meal and try to keep busy until bedtime – even if it is walking in place while watching TV or washing dishes.

Don’t Miss a Meal. It is important to feed your body appropriately. A car cannot run without fuel, a TV won’t work without being plugged into an energy source, and we are no different – humans cannot function without food. Calories are units of energy found in food. By eating a meal or a snack every 2-3 hours we continuously provide our bodies with the energy and nutrition it needs to function properly and maintain a healthy weight.  This also helps regulate our metabolism which is beneficial when preventing and treating chronic disease, such as diabetes.