WAYS TO EAT

What time should you eat?

Breakfast
Breakfast is all about breaking the fast of a night without eating. It also sets the stage for your nutrition for the entire day and gives you the energy you need to face what the day will bring. Starting the day on an empty tank can leave you feeling drained and reaching for foods that may not be in your meal plan by mid-morning. Plan to eat breakfast within an hour of waking. This way, your breakfast doesn’t blend into a mid-morning snack or grazing followed closely by lunch.

Lunch
Lunch should be about four to five hours after breakfast. For example, if you ate breakfast at 7 am, eat lunch between 11 am and noon. If it is not possible for you to eat lunch until 2 pm on a particular day, then plan a snack in between those two meals.

If you need to eat a snack, include a mix of protein, carbohydrates and fat. For example, eat a low-fat cheese stick with an apple, or one to two cups of vegetables with one-fourth cup of hummus. The goal is to prevent becoming overly hungry between meals.

Dinner
Many people tend to overeat at dinner because they have not eaten enough throughout the day. Dinnertime should follow the same schedule as your earlier meals, making sure there is no more than four to five hours between lunch and dinner. Some people will need to eat a snack between lunch and dinner because eating dinner at 4 or 5 pm is not always realistic.

What about time-restricted eating?
Weight management strategies can help reduce the risk of developing long-term health issues, such as heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. These strategies include diets where you aim to eat fewer calories than you burn in a day. There are also diets where you eat only during a specified time frame. Until recently, few studies have compared the effectiveness of these strategies, which can be hard to maintain for many people.  

What to Do If You’re Not Hungry
Many people say that they aren’t hungry at certain meal times, especially for breakfast. If you frequently skip breakfast, you have trained your body not to send hunger signals at that time because they have long been ignored. Your body needs energy in the morning, so fuel it accordingly.

Not enough time to eat?
It’s easy to fall into the habit of rushing through your meals or eating on the go, but you should make it a practice to sit down and take time for meals. You digest your food better and enjoy your meals more — the tastes, textures and smells — when you slow down and focus on what you are eating. This habit is necessary for your overall well-being.