Circadian Eating: The Best Way to do Intermittent Fasting for Health, Weight Loss and Performance
Circadian eating is a type of intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating that aligns one's eating patterns with the circadian rhythm, the natural 24-hour cycle that regulates many physiological processes, including metabolism, hormone production, and sleep-wake cycles.
When the circadian clock doesn't match your daily habits, you might start experiencing metabolic issues, like trouble with your blood sugar and weight gain. This kind of mix-up, called circadian misalignment, hits night shift workers the hardest because they're awake at night, sleep during the day, and often eat when most people are sleeping.
But it's more than just a problem for them. You could be facing something similar called social and eating jet-lag. That's when you stay up late, wake up late, and your meals drift later into the evening. This can sneakily lead you to eat more and pack on extra pounds. Furthermore, even just moving the eating window to a couple of hours earlier or later in the day will give you jet lag symptoms, and it takes about two days to recover from it. Trying to sync your mealtimes with when your body naturally wants to eat might help you avoid these issues.
Eating a smaller dinner earlier and sticking to the same mealtimes throughout the week and weekend could lighten the load on your heart, keep your weight in check, improve sleep, enhance physical and cognitive performance, and boost other aspects of your health.
Circadian Eating Guidlines: - Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dinner like a Pauper!
Wait at least one hour after waking before you eat or drink anything other than water
Eat breakfast by 10 a.m. to benefit from enhanced protein synthesis and glucose control. This is the time to have more protein and carbohydrates
Eat breakfast at the same time every day to synchronise your circadian clock
Consume enough salt to prevent hunger and shakiness when fasting
Have dinner at least 2- 3 hours before bedtime. It should consist of protein and non-starchy vegetables in small amounts
Walk for 30 minutes after dinner to clear out glucose, speed up gastric emptying and reach the fasted state quicker
Stick to the 8-10-hour eating window
Follow the same pattern on the weekend to prevent a ‘social and eating jetlag
We love Chief Beef Bars and Chief Biltong - the perfect evening snack or to use in evening meals, as they are easily digestible, low in carbohydrates and fats and high in protein.
Written by
Veronika Larisova
from wearechief.com
