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The Number One Intermittent Fasting Mistake
By Jason Chamney, Fitness Science Director
INTERMITTENT FASTING IS NOT JUST ABOUT SKIPPING BREAKFAST.
I have personally tried just pushing my eating window later and seen many clients do the same. IT DOES NOT WORK. In fact, the data out of the Salk Institute by Dr. Satchin Panda and his colleagues, seems to indicate the benefits of a daily fasting may be nullified by eating most of your food close to bedtime. Our insulin sensitivity is at its highest early in the day and its worst as it gets later. So our ability to metabolize glucose rather than convert it to stored fat is much better in the morning.
Dr. Panda’s work has even revealed a mechanism for this. Melatonin is our sleep hormone and it starts to ramp up in the late afternoon. Receptors for our sleep hormone, melatonin, have recently been discovered in the islets of langerhans of our pancreas. As melatonin binds to these receptors in the later hours, this impairs insulin production and therefore our ability to metabolize glucose.
So, if you are planning to practice daily intermittent fasting, eat big early and start your fasting window at least 3 or 4 hours before bedtime. The old adage of eating breakfast like a king and dinner like a pauper still holds..
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