All of nutrition science is based on two
experiments. The first proved the notion of calorie restriction. If we eat
less, we will lose weight and achieve better health. The second experiment
supports the notion of ‘healthy diet’. The finding of second experiment proved
the notion that the quality of food – its nutritional content – matters
significantly when it comes to your health.
Proteins, carbohydrates and
fats are called macronutrients whereas antioxidants, vitamins, minerals are
called micronutrients. The entire focus of the research is to have a balanced
diet which includes all of the above mentioned components in various
proportions. Experimentally it is proved that high fat diet is the basic cause
for obesity and diabetes. All our diagnosis, prognosis and disease management
is based on the above two experiments and we tried to balance the diet and
intervene in the cellular mechanism that maintains the body sugar level.
Recently scientific community started bifurcating the cause of disease into
poor diet and random eating behaviour. This third experiment established the
idea that it is not only how much we eat and what we eat but when we eat that
matters more for long term maintenance of health.
Without compromising on amount
of calorie intake, if we just restrict the time of same amount of calorie
intake, we provide our digestive tract and gut microbes the right time to
perform its function uninterrupted by a new influx of food and enough time to
repair and rejuvenate itself. Researchers have followed this up with another
study, where they combined calorie restriction study with time specific calorie
intake study. It was proved that low calorie food has no effect on weight loss
if given at wrong time. This means that regardless of which kind of calorie
restricting diet you follow, when you eat is more important than what type of
food you eat.
We need food for the activity.
As we are diurnal animal, we perform most of the activity during day time,
hence our eating window should be as close as possible to 12 hours. Time
restricted eating (TRE) is never about counting calories; it is just making you
more disciplined about timing. It was proved that effective weight loss come
with eating within 8 to 9 hours window. Most of our body fat burning happens 6
to 8 hrs after finishing last meal and increases almost exponentially after
full 12 hours of fasting, making any amount of time fasting past 12 hrs highly
beneficial for weight loss programs.
There are conflicting reports
about efficacy of number of meals per day or duration of fasting between two
meals. It is suggested that there should be at least 5 hours gap between any
two meal intakes during day time and at least 12 hours gap between dinner and
breakfast on next morning. This time restricted eating pattern is shown to tune
the metabolic clock by positively affecting the gut microbiome. The grazing
pattern of eating does not allow the microbiome to rest and thus disrupts their
rhythmicity. As the microbes are not exposed to outer environment directly, the
food intake pattern is the only cue to set the rhythmicity. The type of food
also decides the diversity of microbes.
Time restricted eating
restricts the food intake during the active part of the day when the energy is
required and avoids food intake during resting period which converts excess
sugar into fat. To find out what is your current window of eating, start noting
down the time of first and last food intake at least for seven consecutive days
and you will be surprised to know that you eat almost all the time you are
awake. This is the basic problem in our lifestyle which is very hard to change.
Changes in eating pattern during weekdays and weekends, excessive intake of
processed food and intake of largest meal in the late evening are few of the
major wrong habits in the modern lifestyle.
Most of the religions,
emphasis on fasting which is primarily to control your senses and ultimately to
your mind. But the major importance of fasting at physical level is to reset
your internal metabolic clock. I would suggest you shifting your eating and
non-eating schedule stepwise from current 16:8 to 14:10 to 12:12 and ideally to
10:14 meaning 14 hours of gap between dinner and breakfast next day. It happens
that once in while you may not able to follow this pattern for which dinner
skipping at least once in a week is recommended. It will be hard in the
beginning to have no food for more than 12 hours. It is recommended to drink
liquid diet to begin with and then only water whenever you feel hungry.
Chronoprakriti diet plan will
become personalized based on your chronoprakriti assessment. Your prakriti will
decide which type of food you should prefer or avoid depending upon your age,
season, geographical location and prevalent health condition. Your chronotype
will decide whether you should have large breakfast or large lunch or large
dinner.
Seasonal and local food products induces changes in the metabolism due to the particular phenolic profile that the product contains hence the Chronoprakriti diet insists on seasonal and local variety of food products in your diet. Even though we stick to this diet plan for weekdays and change it for weekends then body will experience what is called ‘metabolic jet lag’ Even without travelling to different time zone, your gut microbiome will experience the change in food intake that will disturb their rhythm and it will be take time to regain it.
So we should have consistent food timing on all days as much as possible. If it happens that due to social obligations, there is a change in meal pattern, it is recommended to fast next day to readjust the metabolic clock. Weekly fasting is highly recommended to keep your metabolic clock healthy. Our body is not made for 24x7 food intake. Due to availability of processed food round the clock our eating window is almost equivalent to our waking hours and that is creating all types of health issues. Our aim should be finishing a food intake in specific time span which should be less than 12 hours. If we could keep our digestive tract empty for at least 13-14 hrs then our peripheral clocks can tune themselves easily and help process excess nutrients properly by the body.
I will recommend to find out your chronoprakriti from our website and get the specific diet plan from us. Before that you may first give a try of 3 meals a day pattern with 5 hrs complete gap to find out how you feel. I am sure, you will see the positive difference even in first couple of days.
For more details do visit: www.chronoprakriti.com
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