Does meal timing matter???

“To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art” – La Rochefoucauld

Hey Steemians, today let’s just chat about whether the timing of meal is important or not. We all try really hard to stay fit and active by eating healthy food, by doing workout (or some of us just think about working out like me… :D), or by having proper sleep.

As we all already know that proper sleep is important for us as it helps in maintaining the circadian rhythm of our body, proper metabolism and also in improving our learning and memory function. So as the meal timing is important for us.

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A group of researchers from University of Pennsylvania has provided experimental evidence that meal timing do play a role in gain or loss of weight and maintaining the fat metabolism (1).

Early meal timing help reduces the chances of weight gain. As it is shown by the group that late eating habit affects the metabolism of body. Respiratory quotient can be used to check which macromolecules being metabolized. Respiratory quotient is the ratio of carbon dioxide produced to the oxygen consumed by the body. This value was found elevated in people which are on late eating habit, which shows that more carbohydrate is metabolized and lesser lipids.

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Ghrelin is a hormone which is also known as “hunger hormone” and it is responsible of regulating the appetite. Another hormone is leptin which keeps us satiated and it is opposed by ghrelin. In case of daytime eaters the hormone ghrelin starts acting early and the people received cues to eat early and remain satiated for longer time. And so in this case prevents overrating in evening and at night.

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Leptin and ghrelin levels are regulated by food intake, overeating leads to increased expression of adipocyte leptin and fasting results in decrease of adipocyte leptin (2). Level of leptin and ghrelin are not only dependent on the size and frequency of your meal but also composition of meal.

In a study, it's been reported that low fat or high carbohydrate diet may have inhibitory effect on the ghrelin level and results in weight loss. And it's concluded that regulated food intake and controlled body weight are important for obese peoples (3).

Avoid overeating
Take full sleep
Avoid sweet
Increase protein intake
Stay physically active

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The group also showed that in people who are taking delayed meal have raised insulin, cholesterol and triglycerides level.

Ghrelin (Stress and anxiety)

The peptide hormone ghrelin are reported to act as anti-depressant and are also have effect on anxiety. Ghrelin appears to increase the (corticotropin-release hormone)CRH/ACTH(adrenocorticortropin hormone) system. For the understanding, leptin inhibits and ghrelin facilitates the stress response.

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Ghrelin is the acute appetite stimulant, adipogenic peptide. Strategies are needed to suppress the ghrelin level to maintain the weight loss (4).

For peoples just trying to loss weight, gain muscle or improve health, just focus on the basic diet of consistent calories and good food quality. Healthy and tasty food is all, one wants.