Does Late Breakfast and Early Dinner Help You Lose Weight?

It is not rare to have heard people say that early dinner is one of the best approaches to lose weight and so is with late breakfast; if this is reality or a myth, it’s hard to say. In fact you cannot predict how every human body works, as they are different from each other. Here are some factual discussions made on these myths.

Introduction

Eating early and early to bed is always an age old practice by our elders. With practices of healthy eating and healthy living, we happen to rediscover these habits today.

But adding up to this, there are numerous myths and rumours related to many routines. Like, skipping dinner or late dinner induce weight loss or sometimes results in weight gain.

Although late dinner might seem like modern world practice, that does not prove for it to give negative impacts on your body weight.

From keto diets to eating only one meal a day we have seen many more of these diets. On a lot of occasions, myths seem to outweigh facts.

Health is one of the most concerned topics today, information regarding the topic is quite being exploited left, right and centre. After all, who does not want the piece of that profitable cake even though it is not their share?

However, it is important to bear in mind that each body is different, and one approach might work for one person, but it might not work for another. A person losing weight is completely determined by their BMI, amount of physical activity and how their body responds to each food.

On the plus side, efforts exerted by several researchers during the course of several years has given us a glimpse of how the general population’s body works.

In this article, let us read about the recommended eating timings and the reality behind the myths on eating routine.[1]

Also Read: Keto Diet: Not An Ideal Diet For Good Health

Breakfast: The king of all meals

This is a familiar phrase to most of us. It is important to note that many certified and popular dieticians along with professional doctors across the world have maintained that breakfast is the most important and substantial meal of the day.

After dinner the previous night, breakfast is your first meal the next day. The time in between these two meals is very long and hence your body must be starving for energy.

This is the major reason why heavy breakfast is necessary and most recommended.[2]

healthy and heavy breakfast
healthy and heavy breakfast

A heavy breakfast should include the right amount of nutrition in it. You can also take Possible’s meal plate as a reference; it includes 25% carbohydrates, 25% proteins and 50% veggies.

According to recent experiments conducted by the University of Massachusetts’s medical school and NCBI, breakfast is an important meal. As per the study, people who routinely skipped breakfast were found to be at a higher risk of obesity.[3]

Also Read: 10 Reasons Why It Is A Health Crime To Skip Breakfast

Does Eating Late Breakfast And Early Dinner Help Lose Weight?

Definitely yes! So, what does, eating late breakfast and early dinner, mean anyway? Well! This discussion could go a long way here. But here is how it’s explained in short.

Eating late breakfast and early dinner is nothing but time restricted eating. You set a time limit between which you need to complete your three course meals of the day. Although early dinner has been followed since ages (mostly elders), this is catching up its importance nowadays.

This sort of time-restricted eating works this way; your late breakfast will make you crave less for lunch and hence you tend to have less food for lunch. Your early dinner will warn you or avoid you from having a heavy snack in the evening. Hence you end up having 2 normal meals and 2 smaller meals a day.

Late breakfast

This will lead to less calorie intake and also you are not really restricting on what food you are having. Your body gradually accepts the eating time and also craves less for junk/ mid meal snacks, because you’re consuming food throughout the time.

A study at the University of Surrey, conducted an experiment with certain individuals by indulging them in time-restricted eating. The results were extremely positive in terms of weight loss wherein the individuals following time-restricted eating lost body fat, their calorie intake reduced and also they saw a significant decrease in risks of LDL cholesterol.[4]

With evidently positive results from time-restricted eating, there are also multiple disadvantages that are associated with this particular eating time. One such being that, the early dinner can lead to mid-night cravings which in turn results in overeating at night.

Late breakfast is not always possible, especially if you work out or run in the morning. While your dinner is early in the previous day, having late breakfast may seem like starving. This might also lead to overeating due to all the starving.

Being consistent with late breakfast and early dinner will make your body adapted to the routine, but you cannot always follow it in certain social conditions where you have to compromise your routine.

As efficient as this sort of eating routine sounds, it cannot be a long term plan. This will definitely give you positive results in terms of weight loss and also improvisation in health; but having better options like healthy eating and consistent workouts, time-restricted eating is still behind in the list.

Also Read: 10 Major Causes Of Obesity And Weight Gain

Does Late Night Dinner Lead To Weight Gain?

While having given out positive thoughts over early dinner, does not mean we conclude as late dinner leading to weight gain. Because it is definitely a myth.

We do come across a lot of influential personalities, who come up with statements like how skipping dinner has given them the perfect body shape and beauty. But this to be true is proved nowhere.

Late night dinner

It is important to note that the concept of late-night meals does not hold sway over the concerns of weight loss or weight gain. Meals depend on how your body responds to them.

For example, if skipping breakfast prompts one to overeat through the day, it may be easily asserted that having a sound breakfast is a better and healthier choice.

One of the most common weight loss myths is that you should not touch food after 6 p.m. The focus here has again been on quick-fix remedies to squeeze our body into a socially acceptable shape.

It is true that weight loss in case you are obese or overweight will give you good health and reduces your risks of being ill; but that does not mean you shrink your body into a beauty pageant model. Well! These pageants are also coming out of the “toned and lean body” norm, with time.

Scientifically speaking, late-night meals do not contribute to fattening up in any manner whatsoever. According to a recent study conducted by a group of Israeli researchers, participants were put through an experimental procedure for six months.[5]

The participants who ate late-night meals were found to lose more fat compared to the rest. Additionally, the study also showed that the concerned participants also felt a greater degree of fullness for the entire period and also reported appropriate alterations in their body.

Apart from these, the study found the following significant results:

  • Those who ate at night reported lesser hunger pangs and a greater extent of satisfaction.
  • The concerned eaters reported a weight loss of 11%.
  • Showed a 10% higher change in abdominal circumference.
  • Lost over 10% overall body fat.

Additionally, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, those who consumed over seventy per cent of their calories after seven o’ clock in the evening reported a higher percentage of fat loss.[6]

So, as part of this discussion, NO! late night dinner does not lead to weight gain. Again, it is important to keep track of how much food you eat if you are having your dinner late, also, avoid overeating or high calorie food in the night.

Also Read: What Causes Eating Disorders

Is Late-Night Eating Recommendable?

As far as weight loss plan is concerned, it is important to note that most of the time, a person’s behaviour and psychological mindset determine their eating habits. For instance, there are times when many late-night eaters tend to chew on meals more out of emotional imbalance than of pure hunger.

As a result, the consumption of a higher number of calories automatically affects the well being of the body. Typically, night-time eaters normally tend to notch up calorie consumption. On the other hand, it is equally significant to understand that our body does not process food differently at different times of the day.

Apart from that, it must be kept in mind that consuming carbohydrates at night can potentially induce sleep. Weight loss or gain depends at times on how adequately the body has slept. High-stress levels directly influence the weight of the body.

According to a study, people who sleep less eat more; to put it simply, lack of sleep causes fatigue which directly prompts the body to consume higher amounts of food, thus contributing to weight gain. Lack of sleep has the potential to affect the metabolic rate of the body.[7]

Conclusion

Weight loss is honestly a mystery for each one of us. It is also something most of us are behind, running about, looking for that perfect diet or regime that can help us nail a perfect body shape or a healthy life.

With this, it is also important to understand if each suggestion that we come across in losing weight has some factual truth attached to it. This is the same with our discussions made in this article.

Does late breakfast and early dinner routine really help us lose weight?
The results are again diplomatic in terms of its effect on each individual. One may find it positive on them, one may not see any effect on them or maybe it will have a negative effect on some other.

At the end, weight loss has to be done in a way where the results can be seen and experienced forever; Balanced diet, regular workouts seem hard to be consistent with, but always the best approach for a longer run!

16 thoughts on “Does Late Breakfast and Early Dinner Help You Lose Weight?

    • monisha says:

      Hi Maria! We’re happy to receive your compliments and appreciation towards our article. Keep following our blog to know such more health information.

  1. Maria Jones says:

    Thanks for such a great article. Yeah, it’s true that there is a need for different approaches for every individual. And sleep factor plays important role in keeping you healthy. I think 8 hours of sleep is a must to feel fresh and energetic. Keep up the awesome work. This fantastic method has worked wonders for many people.

    • monisha says:

      Hi Maria! We thank you for sharing your feedback towards our article. Keep following our blog to know more health information.

  2. Carlos says:

    Thank you for the great article, you are an inspiration to all of us. This is a great way I find to lose weight, I hope it helps some others!

    • monisha says:

      Hi Carlos! We’re overjoyed to receive your compliments and appreciation towards our article. We are glad to know that our blog was very useful to you . Keep following our blog to know such more health information.

    • monisha says:

      Dear Nicole! We’re happy to receive your compliments and appreciation towards our article. Keep following our blog to know such more health information.

  3. Diego says:

    Is Late Breakfast And Early Dinner For Weight Loss A Reality Or Myth? Read On To Know
    By Krupa is literally the BEST weight loss community anywhere , I read it everyday,it helped my best friend not only lose weight but keep it off, hope it helps some others!

    • monisha says:

      Dear Diego! We’re happy to receive your compliments and appreciation towards our article. We are glad to know that our blog was very useful to you. Thanks for taking the time to share your prestige opinion on our blog, Keep following our blog to know such more health information.

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