Eat an early dinner to lose weight

If you want to lose the pounds, have an early dinner and an early breakfast the following morning.

An early dinner gives the body enough time to burn off the calories, and also extends the time you’re fasting, a new study has discovered.

But skipping breakfast completely, and fasting for around 17 hours before you eat, doesn’t help you lose any extra weight, say researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health.

Instead, the ‘Goldilocks’ approach to intermittent fasting is the healthiest way to go, the researchers found after they analysed the eating habits of around 7,000 people for five years.

Those who lost weight tended to eat an early dinner and breakfast.  “We think this may be because eating earlier in the day is more in line with circadian rhythms and allows for better calorie burning and appetite regulation,” said Luciana Pons-Muzzo, one of the researchers.

A subset of the group followed a more extreme approach and fasted for 17 hours by skipping breakfast and having their first meal around 2pm.  The group, mainly comprised of men, had a less healthy lifestyle, didn’t eat a Mediterranean diet, were less active, and were more likely to smoke.

But despite fasting longer, the men didn’t lose any weight, and the tactic was no better than calorie restriction, which has a limited and short-term impact.  Instead, follow a sensible pattern of intermittent fasting and eat healthily, focusing on the Mediterranean diet.

What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community