Do You Diet By The Clock?

For slimmers the old saying " breakfast like a king, lunch like a queen, and dinner like a pauper" is very true.

If you're trying to lose weight when you eat can be quite important.  At some time we have all starved ourselves all day long, saying "I'll have a good meal in the evening".

By then you are so ravenous,  a generous evening meal seems to be just the ticket.  With this method your weight stays disappointingly high.

The question is why?

Very often it's because you eat far more in the evening after a starvation day than you would if you had eaten at regular intervals during the day. It can also be considered that we are less active during the evening, say watching T.V and the calories you have just taken in are not used effectively.

During the day, generally, activity levels are higher, therefore the calories stand a better chance of being burnt away. However, there's more to it than that. In a study of volunteers by an American nutritionist, one group ate early in the day and a  second group ate later. Over three weeks the late eaters put on about 1/2 a pound a week, while the early eaters lost about 2.1/2 pounds.  Athough both groups could eat what they liked, the early eaters said they felt less hungry overall. 

The reason this method of eating works, is that many of  the hormones controlling the digestion actually work at different times in the day.  For instance insulin, the hormone which lowers blood sugar after a meal, encourages calories to be stored as fat,.but the level of insulin in your body during the day varies. It's lower early on in the day, which means it stores less fat from the calories we eat at that time and higher later in the day, storing fat slightly more easily.

This means calories eaten in the morning are more likely to be burned as energy, while those eaten later in the day are more likely to be laid down as fat. So the slimmer who does without food during the day and makes up for it at night is going against here own hormonal cycles and encouraging her body to retain weight.

Body Clock Tips

If you are young and very active, you can usually eat what you like provided most of your calorie intake is eaten in the earlier parts of the day. Others less younger and active would probably benefit from restricting fattening treats to the mornings, still within the diet guidelines, don't forget!  Eat slowly and chew your food well.

The appetite centre in the brain takes 20 minutes to let you know that you have eaten enough. So give it time!  Keep off refined carbohydrates, such as white flour foods, sugary cereals and food which contains sugar. These are broken down quickly by the body, so you'll soon feel hungry again.  Don't worry too much about the occasional lapse, just remember, don’t finish the day or even the week cheating just because you've broken the diet.  Go straight back to it!

Having something mid afternoon is a good idea. It helps to stop the blood sugar levels from dropping and stop energy levels from flagging. Without it, you may feel tired and have difficulty keeping your appetite under control at night. Just an apple will do!  Avoid alcohol as it is high in empty calories, and provides no nutrients or vitamins.

The effect of alcohol is stronger if there's no food in your stomach to prevent it entering your blood stream immediately.  So, if you are socialising after work and don't have time to eat first, it may be wise to stick to non-alcoholic drinks preferably low-calorie, of course!

Remember all this advice we give you at class is to guide you towards the 'perfect eating plan'.  You will still lose weight, providing the food you consume as energy is less than the amount of energy you expend. The more of our advice you follow, the faster you will lose your weight and the fitter you will feel and the better you will look!