The Overnight Fast

How intermittent fasting can help achieve weight loss goals

What is intermittent fasting? And does it really work? If you look it up you’ll find that there are several different ways to do it. For example, some suggest eating normally for several days, followed by a period of fasting, others suggest alternating days of fasting with usual eating patterns to improve weight loss. Now, another study adds to this body of evidence, suggesting that condensing daily eating hours may be effective in creating an overnight “fast” resulting in fat loss.

Published in the Journal of Nutritional Sciences, a small, 10 week time restricted study looked into how eating a later breakfast and earlier dinner impacted body composition and blood profiles of 16 healthy and overweight individuals.  There were two groups – one group was instructed to eat breakfast 1.5 hours later, and dinner 1.5 hours earlier than usual; with no restrictions on portion sizes or types of food.  No changes were asked of the control group. Blood samples and food journals were required from all participants.

They found that a simple time change resulted in almost double the amount of fat loss when compared to the control group. In other words, if you usually eat breakfast at 7am and dinner at 7pm, this study suggests that you may be able to improve your weight loss efforts just by having breakfast at 8:30am and dinner at 5:30pm.  When surveyed, participants felt that family and social events would prevent them from practicing this way of eating long term – however they would consider continuing the eating pattern if timing was more flexible.

If eating breakfast at 8:30 seems like it would interfere with your morning commute, or be a hassle to eat on the job- we suggest our Nutty Banana Berry Roll-Up, or our Wake Up Oats for a fast and portable breakfast, wherever your morning takes you!

Published December 20, 2018