'Why Meal Timing, Calorie Distribution & Feeding Windows Really Do Matter'

IronLion2 · Dec 1, 2019

Chrononutrition: Why Meal Timing, Calorie Distribution & Feeding Windows Really Do Matter

Meal timing, calorie distribution, and feeding windows matter. In this article, Danny Lennon tells us everything we need to know about chrononutrition.

www.strongerbyscience.com

A+ write up and a nail on the coffin for those who play pseudo nutritionists on the internet

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TL;DR

Circadian biology plays a fundamental role in human health.
Research has shown that nutrient ingestion can impact our “body clocks” in peripheral tissues around the body, suggesting that when we eat our meals can have implications for health via influencing circadian rhythms.
In addition, it has been hypothesized that having a restricted feeding window (time-restricted feeding) can have beneficial impacts on body composition and health, likely via circadian effects at least in some part.
A related hypothesis suggests that the distribution of calories over the day (majority eaten early vs. late) can also have health impacts.
My personal interpretation of the current literature available leads me to tentatively conclude that, in general, the following heuristics would be beneficial for many people to follow: 1) avoid eating during biological night, 2) avoid meals, particularly those high in fat and/or carbohydrates, close to DLMO (or say, at least ~2-3 hours pre-sleep), 3) bias more calories to earlier in the day (i.e. don’t eat a high proportion of your daily calories in the late evening), 4) have consistent meal times and meal frequency from day-to-day, 5) have some restricted feeding window (start with <12 hours per day, but no ideal is yet known), 6) get daylight exposure early in the day and avoid artificial light (blue and green wavelengths of light specifically) as much as is pragmatically reasonable at night.
There are several caveats and exceptions to the above heuristics. Implications may be different for athletes, for those trying to gain weight, for those who such heuristics undermine adherence to nutrition fundamentals, and in situations where social interactions and fun should be prioritized.

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b-boy · Dec 2, 2019

The calories eaten in the evening do not matter if you are doing heavy resistance training in the evening. The rest I can get on board with. Hunter/gathers often killed animals in the evening and gorged themselves full also.

method2madness · Dec 2, 2019

Not for nothing, but all of this seems like pretty standard stuff and common knowledge among those out there with actual experience in the bodybuilding/health and fitness world. But there might be some newbies out there who think they have the fancy "new way" of doing things who could benefit from this tried and true knowledge.

IronLion2 · Dec 2, 2019

b-boy said:
The calories eaten in the evening do not matter if you are doing heavy resistance training in the evening. The rest I can get on board with. Hunter/gathers often killed animals in the evening and gorged themselves full also.

"Resistance training in the evening
This is a potential caveat that I likely suspect influences readers of this site. With muscle contraction from a sufficient stimulus (let’s say via lifting some weights), a glucose transporter (GLUT4) usually embedded in a muscle cells, moves to the surface of the cell. This transporter now makes it possible for glucose to move from the bloodstream into the muscle cell and, importantly, this process it NOT reliant on the action of insulin, as glucose disposal usually is (to be clear, insulin does stimulate GLUT4 translocation, but contraction-mediated GLUT4 translocation doesn’t require insulin). So the result is that we can now get glucose disposal from the bloodstream to the muscle cell (and hence bring down blood glucose levels) without needing insulin to mediate this process. This is relevant because earlier in this article, I discussed why we could hypothesize that consuming a carbohydrate-based meal would be more problematic late in the day compared to the morning, based on the mechanistic rationale that insulin sensitivity declines across the day and that beta-cell function is higher in the morning. But one interesting question to ponder is: how much would placing a resistance training session in the evening mitigate the potential problem? Because now, we can consume carbohydrates in the evening and get adequate glucose disposal, regardless of the cell’s insulin sensitivity status.

That said, there are other issues to consider with large meals late in the day (e.g. impacts on peripheral circadian clocks, impacts on sleep, impact of energy expenditure across the day). But at least there is a reason to suggest that we can mitigate the glycemic concerns of later carbohydrate feedings through the inclusion of evening training sessions."

b-boy · Dec 2, 2019

Energy expenditure will also be higher do to the now repairing of torn muscle tissue and recovery of the nervous system itself.

qbkilla · Dec 2, 2019

I do enjoy their podcasts at time when I can listen to them, but the stronger than science crew way overanalyze this stuff scientifically IMO to where its madness. I think if these guys spend more time researching every aspect that could contribute to .00001 percent muscle growth it actually causes them stress and lack of sleep that actually hinder their progress more than if they would just eat, train, and sleep.

its almost like if I told you work legs, then eat 8oz of steak and 10oz potatoes and you will grow. but instead of doing that you spent the entire day driving around looking for the best price on steak, best price on potatoes, and the best gym, to the point where you never actually worked out or ate the food. thats what I feel like these guys do.

Bio · Dec 2, 2019

Sounds like a model for someone who trains in the am or early afternoon. For those that train in the evening, things will need to be changed around.

Biggerp73 · Dec 2, 2019

Of course nutrient timing matters. Try eating 6,000g of protein and 90,000 calories, over the course of 2 days, just once per month, while fasting the rest of the time. Compare that with spreading those nutrients out into 200g protein and 3,000 calories, each day. Will be the same total nutrients and macros over time!!!!!

. The question is, at what point do diminishing returns kick in, and micromanaging become inefficient or perhaps even counterproductive (perhaps psychologically). But most of us with a basic understanding of human metabolism can understand when to feed carbs, when to feed fats, how to space out and dose the proper amounts of proteins, etc.