Dear Cindy,

That’s a tricky question. The answer is yes and no.

What time you eat, per se, has no affect on whether you lose or gain weight. If you’re in a deficit you will lose. If you’re in a surplus you will gain. If 1500 calories puts you in a deficit, there’s absolutely no difference if you eat those calories at eight o’clock in the morning or ten o’clock at night. There’s also no difference whether you eat them all at one meal like I do, or spread them out over six evenly spaced small meals of 250 calories each. At the end of the day, the caloric deficit is the same, and thus the rate of weight loss will be the same.

But that doesn’t tell the whole story…

When you’re trying to lose weight, you want as little resistance as possible. One way to do that is to get into consistent routines. Eating at the same time will make fasting feel easier. When you eat at the same time each day, you’re training your body when to expect food, and when not to expect food. You’ll feel less hunger. You’ll be able to focus better on your other tasks, because you’re not pondering whether or not you should eat right now. Because of all this, you’ll be more consistent with fasting, and your results will be better.

Here’s another factor to consider: as the day wears on it’s likely your decision making ability will wane. When you’re tired and cranky, it’s a lot easier to overeat. In other words, if you wait until 10 PM to eat something, you may end up eating 2000 calories, simply because you’re low on willpower and stopping sense.

What works for me is to have a general routine that I stick to. I like to eat my OMAD at about 6 pm. But there are days when I have it at 2 pm. Other times it’s eight o’clock before we finally get to sit down and eat. Back when I did longer windows, I found it was much easier to have a set window that I didn’t move from day to day. For example, when I did a 18:6, I just told myself my eating window was always open from 2 pm – 8 pm. There were days where my last food was at 6:30, and times when my first food was at 3. Some people might find that method too restrictive. Others might find it too loosey-goosey. I recommend you experiment and see what works for you.

Sincerely,

Kayla

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