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Writer's picturePhillip Chua - Naturopath

WHAT or WHEN... which makes more difference?

Let's take a walk down a street of 'normal-ville', this is a hypothetical place where it is the average person in the population does on a daily basis.


In this scenario the amount of food you eat from 4 am to noon is generally less 25% of the food intake for the whole day. With most people eating something within an hour of getting up (cup of tea/coffee with sugar or a piece of fruit). We tend to have this smaller meal as we sleep as late as we can in order to catch up staying up later than our biological rhythms tell us to at night. In this environment the average amount of time watching TV is 3-4 hours.




Perhaps more interesting is that about 33% of the energy intake is after 6 pm at night. Meaning that we are consuming a large amount of energy just before a time of day where many of us are being very sedentary.


This pattern of where the energy is consumed during the day it means that many people will often feel flat and sluggish through the afternoon, getting home and collapsing onto the couch. Having the longer period of time of high output through the day without a matching fuel input means that we often look for fast and pick me up type foods in a state of perpetually trying to play catch up.


Fatigue and lack of concentration are common for the average person, this state for a week may not be all that bad but when compounded over the long term, 20 / 30 / 40 years where does that get us? This is the story of the Western world that we currently live in. Rates of overweight & obestiy (70%) are as high as they have ever been, type 2 diabetes and heart disease are common through most families.


But what can be done...


Of a study group that trialed doing some time restricted eating (TRE), for a period of 8 weeks were actually more likely to adhere to that eating plan. But the reason most noted might surprise you. It was that they stated that they SLEPT BETTER. Having a period of time of non eating (2-3 hours) before bed it means that digestive processes have had a chance be more complete meaning that the body is able to relax and sleep more effectively.


The quality of your sleep (1/3 of your life) directly effects the level of functioning when you are awake. This means that the sleep patterns and how we can protect the sleep cycle is a key factor in health. If you needed more reason than that adhering to TRE, may also positively effect your weight management (more than high/low fat or carbohydrate diets), your microbiome, cardiac function as well as exercise output capacity.


For more guidance on how to implement this into your day to day routine book online here.



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