The SlimGenics Weight Loss Program advocates for proper meal timing so our clients can experience the best results possible and we want to take a few moments to showcase just how important meal timing is when it comes to your metabolism.

As scientists continue to peel back the layers of weight-loss innovation, our understanding of metabolic functions becomes more and more complex. Where the calories in versus calories out argument has failed, new schools of thought place importance on things such as individual biology, stress, hormones and now, the rhythm in which you are consuming your energy during the day. 

Chained to the Rhythm

You’ve likely heard of circadian rhythm but if not, the simple way to explain it is that you have a 24-hour clock in your body that sends signals from your brain that the body responds to. Our circadian rhythm tells us when to feel awake or aware and when to get tired enough to sleep. Along with those signals come many much smaller signals that trigger responses in the body. This has an extremely strong bearing on weight loss as these signals determine how your metabolism functions on a whole. 

Before you even begin to think about meals and food timing, the number one thing you can do to protect and encourage a healthy metabolism is: Get Enough Sleep. As a busy person, it is easy and often necessary to place your needs second to other demands but sleep should be the one thing you make an effort not to compromise on. At least eight hours allows your body to rest, heal and function properly for the next day. Starting off a day exhausted has already put your metabolism in a compromised position. So, step one, we get enough sleep to make the next day the best possible. 

Giving the Fire Tinder

Ok, we’re rested, ready to take on the day and thus begins the honest to goodness best part about losing weight with SlimGenics. You get to eat and snack pretty much all day which starts with eating breakfast within 30-45 minutes of getting out of bed. Waking up the metabolism with a healthy meal can give you the weight-loss edge and set you up for success. It’s no joke that breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it determines how well your body is prepared to digest food for the rest of the day.

“Why do you eat all the time?”

Next comes the rest of the day of enjoying healthy meals and snacks frequently. We recommend that our clients eat three meals, breakfast included, each day along with 2-3 snacks spaced apart during the whole day to ensure your body is constantly receiving correctly portioned energy that encourages an increased metabolism. What do we typically do when we are tired? We reach for a comfort snack/meal and we usually overdo it. Overloading your metabolism with too many carbs, too much fat, refined sugar, etc. will very quickly lead your body to have a glucose spike. This can cause your body to have too much to process for energy so it will store the rest as fat for energy to use later. Eating nutritionally-balanced meals and snacks often frees your body from food overload, keeps the metabolism steady and helps you experience stable energy throughout the day. Best weight loss program ever. 

Closing Hours Are….

Another important aspect of weight loss is making sure to eat your final meal or snack at least two hours before bedtime. Why? You need time to digest your food before you fall asleep. During sleep, your body is focused on far more important things than digestion such as resting, processing information from the day and healing. Recently eaten food in your body will digest poorly during sleep and encourage weight gain. And the act of eating late at night tends to disrupt sleep patterns, leaving us tired and inclined the next day to eat things that may not be the best for our health. 

The Whole Picture

To bring it all back around, the idea is to not just feed your body but feed it what it needs WHEN it needs it. Fad diets tend to get things wrong by not taking into account the actual process by which your body digests. By allowing the body to receive healthy nutrition in a metered, enjoyable and common sense way, your metabolism can function optimally, heal from eating unhealthy foods and lose weight efficiently. 

Resources:

• www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2011/05/night-owls-weight-gain.html
• www.nature.com/articles/ijo2012229.epdf
• www.jstor.org/stable/40967841?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
• doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2012.229