10 Hour Window of Eating

It’s now starting to be thought that it’s healthier to eat meals within a 10 hour window each day rather than spread over a longer period. This form of intermittent fasting is meant to be good for helping with weight loss, energy levels and sleep. It’s not however the easiest thing to do especially if you work long hours. If breakfast is at 7am before you leave home and dinner gets later as work and life encroach then the window gets extended.

Starting with an early cup of tea or coffee, then continuing until just before bed with evening supper or snacks means we are often eating for 14-15 hours per day. This causes blood sugar and fat to be more raised in the blood stream, both of which are not ideal for either health of weight loss.  The old adage of ‘Breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince, Dinner like a Pauper’ springs to mind.

So many of our sayings and ‘old wives tales’ have truth in them and although this one doesn’t say anything about a 10 hour window, it does hark back to the days when people ate a decent breakfast, had lunch hours when they were able to relax and enjoy a proper meal, then went home to what would have been called ‘tea’ – a much smaller meal than we eat today, eaten much earlier in the evening.  As a child born in the 1950’s, this was the way in my childhood and certainly people didn’t suffer from as much diabetes or obesity.

If you do think that eating this way would help, then it involves some planning unless you are at home.  Eating breakfast later often means taking food with you and allowing time to eat it before you start work, rather than eating before you leave the house.  It also means being organised so that dinner doesn’t take too long to cook when you return.  Planning ahead is the best way to achieve this and starting some of the preparation the night before is really helpful.  Using a cooker timer or slow cooker means that dinner can be cooking whilst you are out. It also means avoiding drinks with calories such as milk or alcohol outside the 10 hour window. Black tea, coffee, herb teas and water are fine.

All you can do is try it and see if you notice any positive effects from eating this way. Good health.