the best time to eat?

I think my earliest of memories regarding diet and losing weight revolved around meal timing. Back then I was the overweight teen who’s source of diet info was usually from my parents or some relatives who likely heard it from their friend’s cousin's wife’s daughter’s fiance’s neighbor’s step-brother’s roommate. The advice they gave often involved some kind of timing scheme like not eating after 5pm, 7pm, or midnight, or not eating meals too close to each other or even skipping dinner all together.

I tried all of that.

Don’t eat after 5pm? Tried it. Don’t eat after 7pm? Tried it. Make sure breakfast lunch and dinner are at least 6hrs apart? Tried it. What happened each time I tried it? Not only did it not work, but I often gained weight cos of it.

Of course back then it was a complete mystery to me on why it didn’t work, but often instead of blaming the method cos so many elders spoke like experts, I’d blame myself. I’d think I was the problem that it didn’t work for me, cos others have said it worked for them (again stories passed down from friend’s of cousin’s friend’s neighbors).

But now I think back I know exactly why it didn’t work for me.

I remember back then when I was following the no eating after 5pm or 7pm thing I’d eat so much more than usual before the timing cos I was afraid I’d get hungry throughout the night. I’d eat close to 1.5/2x my usual amount (so essentially I was constantly overeating) for that fear since well hey, all they said is I gotta stop eating after that time to lose weight so I can eat as much as I want before the timing right?

Wrong.

Timing wasn’t ever gonna help me lose weight.

So here’s the thing about meal timings. In the grand scheme of things for sustainable weight loss it really doesn’t matter.

What matters when it comes to weight loss is the amount of food you’re eating on a regular basis (calories), not when you’re eating them. Eating a 1500kcal meal with no time restriction vs eating a 1500kcal meal with time restriction is gonna basically get you identical results in terms of weight loss. The calories, the amount, the portions matter. The timing doesn’t.

Now ok ok, I get it.

Saying it doesn’t matter makes it sound like it has zero effect on weight loss which isn’t true. It has some effect. But very very little. So so so so so insignificantly little.

So how should you approach your meal timings? How should you schedule meals?

Schedule them according to your liking, your schedule.

That’s really the secret, there’s not much more to that. If you’re someone that doesn’t get hungry in the mornings but often craves food near midnight, why not skip breakfast altogether and plan a meal close to midnight? If you have a rigid schedule due to your job/school plan your meals around that. There’s no right or wrong timing to eat when it comes to losing weight, there’s just making sure you’re eating your foods and being in control of not overeating too often.

Meal timing also doesn’t have to be this fixed thing.

You could have a different schedule for different days, it’s really just whatever works for you. Don’t worry too much about eating at a certain time, the timing isn’t gonna make or break your diet at all. It’s also totally fine to experiment. Play around with timing to see what you like.

I hope this helps!

Till the next one~

—Po