WHEN Should I Be Eating? Real-World Application of Food Timing
You’ve probably heard lots of different statements about WHEN you should be eating.
Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?
Should you be fasting in the mornings?
Should you eat after 6pm?
How does food timing affect our results?
How important is food timing?
When discussing nutrition with my clients, there is a great resource that I use to show how to structure a diet.
Introducing, the pyramid of Nutritional Priorities!
(Source A)
As with all good pyramids, they start from the base layer and you build up from there.
As you can see…
Meal timings is the 4th level of our pyramid.
The fact that food timings is in the pyramid at all, shows that it plays a role in a persons ability to get results.
But…
It’s important to note that, the timing of your food is not more important than the bottom layers of our pyramid.
(calories, macronutrients & micronutrients)
Which means…
As long as your calorie intake (quantity) and your nutrient intake (quality) are in alignment with your goal…
You’ll get fantastic results regardless of when you’re timing your food intake.
Which leads me nicely to my #1 Problem with the Meal Timing Discussion!
Scientific Benefits vs Real-World Application
I’ll often get people asking me about optimal times for food intake, and they’ll say things like:
“I saw on Tik Tok that eating fruit first thing in the morning spikes insulin levels and then your body is primed to store fat, is that true?”
At this point, their focus is on the wrong thing.
As Jim Rohn would say, they’re
majoring in the minors
Getting into the scientific claims very often leads to confusion.
The validity of these studies is often questionable and the findings embellished to attract more attention to the research. And even if there is validity to some of these proposed “scientifc findings” … you have to question the extent to which it’s going to impact a persons results.
That’s why we’re not going to be talking about that stuff!
We’re going to be looking at food timing through the lens of REAL-WORLD application and how it can have a significant effect on your results.
Real-World application of food timing
The Pyramid of Nutritional priorities is a great tool to logically highlight the hierarchy of our diet.
That being said…
When we choose to eat (although towards the top of the pyramid) can have an effect on our consumption of both calories and nutrients, therefore influencing our results at the most foundational levels of the pyramid…
Or in other words, the most foundational levels of our diet.
To illustrate my point…
Lets analyse a classic Statement around food timing.
(Example) Is it bad to eat after 6pm?
This statement has been going around for a long time.
And, I’ve seen this method work time and time again for people wanting to lose weight…
But not for the reasons most people think!
If you google ‘is eating after 6pm bad for you’ you’ll start to see some alarming claims.
One of the top searches is a Daily Mail article that claims:
‘Eating after 6pm could be bad news for your heart because the digestive system is less efficient at night leading to a greater risk of obesity’
Sounds scary right!
As I said earlier… whether or not there is any validity to this scientific claim, in my eyes, is irrelevant.
Why???
Because of the Real-World affects of not eating after 6pm… in this case
A Reduced Feeding Window
The majority of us work throughout the daytime hours.
Which depending on what you do for work, makes it difficult to find time to eat large amounts of food during the day.
In the mornings, we’re usually rushing to get out for the day.
Which means that the majority of calorie consumption happens later in the day, probably after 6pm.
This is also when boredom is at its highest, which means we might find ourselves snacking whilst relaxing after a long day.
Not to mention that the types of food we eat at night, also tend to be the highest calorie.
… Unless you like to eat Ben & Jerries for breakfast?!
Imagine that we now suddenly enforce an eating curfew at 6pm.
The extra food and high calorie snacks go away, and the calories along with it.
For someone who struggles with excessive late-night calorie consumption…
Introducing a rule like ‘no eating after 6pm’ could be a useful tool, especially if they like a more regimented approach to their food consumption.
But it’s important to attribute the adaption to the right variables:
It is the drop in calories that will ultimately influence our weight management…
(Not a nuanced factor like the efficiency of our digestion)
Reducing the length of time you have to eat food, almost always results in a drop calories.
So the same rule applies to fasting in the mornings…
Usually total calorie intake will be less, because you’re missing an entire meal.
Energy Levels & Performance
Another key consideration of Meal Timings is how it can affect our energy levels and performance.
If you’ve ever been hangry, then you’ll know what I’m talking about!
(Hungry & Angry)
Whether or not a person is hungry can affect their ability to focus and perform.
This becomes very important for maintaining high performance at work, at home and in the gym.
Exercise and Training is one of the biggest influencing factors in how we look, move and feel.
I try to make a practice of asking clients then they last ate before a training session.
There have been a few occasions where I’ve forgot to ask, and a client starts to feel faint / sick because they haven’t got any fuel in the tank.
We keep an emergency stash of sugary treats in the back of the gym just for these occasions.
My point being that…
If you aren’t properly fuelled for a workout, then you won’t perform at your best.
If you can’t perform at your best, then you’re going to get diminishing returns from the workout.
… and this could impact your results.
My advice is to eat about 1-2 hours before your workout, consisting of some protein and carbohydrate sources.
Post-workout, it’s also a good idea to consume some carbohydrates and plenty of protein to assist with recovery.
Compliance is the science
I love the saying that compliance is the science.
No matter what scientific benefits are proposed for a given method…
It’s irrelevant unless a person can consistently do it:
- Not eating after 6pm, isn’t going to work if you’re a night worker.
Fasting in the morning may not work for you if you love to go for Bruch with your friends.
Consuming protein within 20 mins post-workout may not work if you have to rush off to work
Ultimately, the main driver of results is consistency.
You need to look at your lifestyle and determine what is realistic for you, no matter what the science says.
In summary
When you eat does matter… but not for the reasons that most people think.
Rather than get caught up in the scientific research and studies about what is most optimal… Try to look at meal timings with a Real-World viewpoint.
To do that, ask these 3 questions:
How will ‘when I eat’ affect my:
Calorie intake and Nutrient intake?
Energy and performance?
Consistency levels?
If you do that… I can assure you that you’ll be less confused whilst still getting amazing results.
Yours in coaching,
Harry