03/04/2018

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.

Make Breakfast Your Largest Meal of the Day

Consuming more of our calories at the start of the day and fewer at the end boosts metabolism, prevents obesity and reduces the risk of heart disease by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition found that people who ate their largest meal earlier in the day were more likely to have a lower body mass index (BMI) than people who consumed their biggest meal toward the end of the day.

Researchers analyzed the dietary habits of more than 50,000 Seventh Day Adventists over a seven-year period. Members of this religion tend to avoid alcohol and cigarettes, eat very little meat, and exercise regularly, making them the ideal fit for dietary studies.

“Meal timing may affect health due to its impact on the body’s internal clock. In animal studies, it appears that when animals receive food while in an inactive phase, such as when they are sleeping, their internal clocks are reset in a way that can alter nutrient metabolism, resulting in greater weight gain, insulin resistance, and inflammation,” said Marie-Pierre St-Onge, Ph.D., an associate professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University in New York City.

Regardless of total daily caloric intake or individual food choices, the people who ate a large breakfast and then tapered their meal sizes throughout the day—or even ditched dinner altogether—weighed less those who feasted at night.

When it comes to losing weight, maybe we should pay more attention to the numbers on the clock than the numbers on the nutrition label.