As we age, the body’s metabolism slows down. The timing of when you eat your meals, more particularly carbohydrates and proteins, matters. By eating your carbohydrates and proteins at a particular time of day, you can work to help your body metabolize properly and run at top performance.
By following a meal plan with the natural rhythm of your body you can help delay the body’s aging process and eliminate calorie counting forever!
Why Does Timing Matter?
Your body naturally runs on something called a circadian rhythm. This is a term that describes a 24- hour cycle the body follows. When you sleep and wake up, the hormone levels within your blood, brain wave activity, and other processes throughout the body are all a part of this cycle. Your body’s circadian rhythm affects not only your sleep, but also your ability to lose weight.
An optimal diet helps to deliver a variety of micro- and macronutrients that the body needs. A diet that follows these guidelines is called the Chronodiet.
The Chronodiet
The Chronodiet is an intermittent fasting method that is designed to help lose excess weight and slow down the aging process. This diet works in harmony with the natural process of the body.
It is centered around the idea of eating the right things at the right time. By eating food groups at a certain time of day it will help the body optimally absorb and process certain foods.
This diet does not involve counting calories or meal-replacement shakes, instead it is the timing behind the meals that matters. This allows you to still enjoy your favorite foods.
A key guideline to follow within this diet is to consume carbohydrates in the morning at breakfast. While at dinner, it is best to avoid carbohydrates and focus on proteins. Your goal is to have 40 percent of your diet from carbohydrates within the morning and afternoon and 30 percent of your diet from protein for lunch and dinner. The remaining 30 percent of your diet should come from some form of fat.
Why Carbs in the Morning
Our body breaks down carbohydrates, especially complex- carbohydrates, slowly. Carbs slow down the body’s insulin response time and help to provide energy throughout the day. It is best to avoid eating carbohydrates that will go straight into your bloodstream.
For example, if your breakfast is a fruit smoothie the fructose within the fruit goes directly into your bloodstream which can cause your insulin levels to drop. This results in a burn out from not having enough complex carbohydrates to energize your body for the day. To help solve this solution you can add a teaspoon oil as a carbohydrate to help provide your body with more energy for the day!
Eat Your Proteins at Night
At nighttime eating proteins can help to bring the body back to a state of restoration. This helps so that the proteins are not used to produce energy for the day, but rather help the body prepare for overnight fasting while you sleep.
At night we don’t need excess energy like we do to get through the day. Instead, our bodies want to feel full and satisfied so that we do not crave a midnight snack later on. This is why proteins at night is the perfect equation for our body!
Proteins can also help to enhance certain hormones at night and help to aid our sleeping patterns. This strategy will help to eliminate overproduction of insulin within your body and to allow your body to work harmoniously with the natural insulin release cycle. This will allow your body to use the nighttime hours to burn fat and turn fatty acids into energy.
Anti-aging Benefits
The science behind chronobiology for your mealtimes and fasting for 12 hours in between dinner and breakfast provides a way to promote healthy weight management and anti-aging benefits. When you body works efficiently you are helping to avoid a slow down the biology of the body and keeps your blood flowing properly through the arteries. When your digestive system breaks down the food that you eat into amino acids, fatty acids, simple sugars, and other nutrients the body’s insulin then pushes glucose into the cells that help the body’s biological systems function.
Delaying the aging process of the bodies arteries may help to also prevent chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
Timing Foods for Better Aging
By consuming your carbohydrates and fat in the morning and lunch you are providing your body with the proper energy that it needs to run on throughout the day. Saving your proteins for lunch and dinner will help to provide your body the chance to feel full and satisfied throughout the night for an optimal metabolic state.