When it comes to healthy eating, you’ve likely heard far more about what and how much to eat versus when to eat.
It makes sense: Most experts say you first need to know whether you’re eating too much or not enough, then nail down the right macronutrient balance for your goals. Most people fine-tune nutrient timing later.
But if you’re eating the right foods in the right amounts, but still not seeing the results you think you should be, could it be when you’re eating that’s holding you back?
How much does meal timing matter, really? Is meal timing a myth? Let’s dive into that question and others about when you should eat.
Eating macronutrients at certain times — before, during, or after workouts — is called nutrient timing.
The concept of nutrient timing includes the new rules of protein timing, or the “anabolic window” after workouts when muscles are most receptive to protein. It comes into play when determining how to eat leading up to your big endurance event.
We’ve been conditioned to eat by the clock, though it’s a habit that contradicts the concept of mindful eating, or purposefully noticing hunger and satiety cues.
So is meal timing a myth? Yes and no, says Paige Benté, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D., and nutrition manager at Beachbody. It matters, just not as much as you might think.
“With athletes, it’s much more important to time your meals appropriately,” says Benté, adding that this is less important for the weekend warrior than the Olympic athlete. (But those in between may see a benefit.)
In general, for most people, missing one meal occasionally or eating lunch an hour early or late isn’t what’s going to make or break your diet.
But you do need to eat regularly. In a statement published in the journal Circulation, the American Heart Association makes the case for eating intentionally and paying attention to the timing and frequency of your meals.
According to the AHA, a consistent, regular eating schedule could yield a healthier lifestyle and could benefit your cardiovascular health, too.
And when it comes to weight loss and maintenance, the timing of your meals is an important factor in maintaining appetite and healthy blood sugar levels throughout the day, says Jim White, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Regularly timed meals can also help you maintain a healthy metabolism and energy levels, he adds.
Additionally, going to bed with a full stomach or not eating the right ratio and amount of carbs and protein on either side of a workout can mean that you’re not getting the most from all that work, something we’ll delve into in just a moment.
If you’re interested in trying meal timing, check out Beachbody’s A Little Obsessed, which goes live on December 20, 2017. This five-day program is a “sampler” of Autumn Calabrese’s new 80 Day Obsession program, which launches in January 2018.
This new fitness and nutrition program features a meal plan that is laid out for you with very specific meal times.
Do You Need to Eat Breakfast?
Breakfast is the first food-related decision you make daily, and White says it’s a no-brainer. “Breakfast literally means breaking your body out of its nightly fast,” he says.
While some people may be able to skip breakfast and still balance the rest of their day in terms of calories and nutrients, it’s not easy or generally recommended.
“If you skip breakfast and then you are ravenously hungry by noon and eat double what you would normally eat for lunch, then you haven’t done yourself any favors,” Benté says.
White is definitely on Team Breakfast: “It spurs metabolism, gives you an energy boost, and it also provides your brain with the fuel that it needs to function at work or school, helping you to concentrate and focus.”
Amy Shapiro, M.S., R.D., C.D.N., embraces the adage “eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” She says she loves “the idea of a bigger meal at breakfast, as you are guaranteed to use that energy throughout the day.”
Furthermore, some studies have shown that men who eat breakfast are less likely to gain weight compared with those who do not.
Does Eating Lunch Matter?
Does eating lunch matter? Gordon Gekko, the antagonist of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, famously crowed that “lunch is for wimps.”
But Gekko is definitely not a role model for healthy living — and eating lunch does matter. Shapiro thinks lunch is your best bet for getting a midday energy boost and avoiding the afternoon slump.
“We need lunch to keep our energy up throughout the day and to prevent us from overeating later in the day,” says Shapiro, a New York-based nutritionist. “If you skip it and let yourself get too hungry, dinner will be too big — and this can ruin your workout goals and weight-loss efforts.”
What if you just don’t have time for lunch? Are your health goals doomed? Benté says no. “If you can go with breakfast and dinner in a day, and eat the appropriate amount of calories then, sure,” you can overlook lunch, she says.
What’s the Right Time to Eat Dinner?
Sleep is a vital component of health, and your nutrition should work in sync with your other healthy habits — not against them.
Hitting the sack with a full belly is unlikely to help you sleep. What’s the right time to eat dinner? It’s best not to eat too close to bedtime (though that’s better than skipping dinner).
“A light dinner about three hours before bed is the best way to make sure your meal is not getting in the way of adequate sleep,” says White, adding that keeping it light will ensure that you are able to burn off some of that energy before bed.
That three-hour window should leave enough time between eating and lying down to let your body get a head start on digestion, so as to not interfere with your ability to get to sleep — and stay asleep.
Eating less than two hours before bedtime isn’t recommended, says Benté. “That’s really to allow digestion to take place before sleep and prevent things like acid reflux.”
How Long Do You Need to Go Without Eating at Night?
If you need to give yourself at least three hours to digest dinner before bed, how long do you need to go without eating at night?
Benté says you should go at least another eight hours — the recommended amount of sleep per night. To determine the timing for your last meal, look at what time you need to get up, and work backward.
If you have to get up at 6 a.m., you will want to be in bed by 10 p.m., so you’ll ideally have dinner by 7 p.m. That gives you 11 hours between meals, and if you eat dinner earlier or tend to eat breakfast later, you’ll naturally have more hours between meals.
While intermittent fasting is a popular diet technique that involves not eating for prescribed periods of time, commonly a 12- to 16-hour period overnight, don’t get too hung up on the exact number of hours.
“If you’re hungry when you wake up, eat — and if you’re not hungry immediately upon waking, wait to eat,” says Benté.
What Is the Best Thing to Eat Before Bed?
If you want to make your bedtime snack part of your recovery routine, what is the best thing to eat before bed?
To support your muscles after your workout, you’ll want to consume a protein that is absorbed slowly, like casein. This gives your body the tools it needs to repair and grow muscles overnight, while you sleep.
While whey protein, which the body absorbs quickly, is a good idea after a workout, “consuming casein, a slow-absorbed protein, before bed can improve muscle gain and fat loss,” says White. “It can also increase metabolism during sleep and improve satiety, helping you to eat less during the day.”
Beachbody Performance Recharge contains casein, and it is specially formulated with key ingredients to help accelerate overnight recovery, combat exercise-induced muscle soreness, and promote muscle protein synthesis.* “That provides a slow release of amino acids throughout the night that’s easy to digest,” says Benté.
“In general, we recommend not consuming foods that are high in processed carbohydrates immediately before bed,” she adds, since carbs provide energy (aka, the last thing you need before bed).
If you’re following a program like 21 Day Fix or Portion Fix, you know how much of each macronutrient you should be eating daily. To figure out your meal timing, take your daily allotment of containers, and outline when you’ll be eating each one throughout the day.
Let’s look at a few other commonly asked questions surrounding meal timing to get your eating plan on point.
How Long Should You Wait to Exercise After Eating Carbs?
One common question related to nutrient timing is: How long should you wait to exercise after eating carbs?
Carbs should be part of your pre-workout snack, which would ideally be a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein about an hour before your sweat session begins. This will give you adequate energy to avoid bonking during your workout.
How Long Before a Workout Should You Eat?
If you go too long without eating, you may not have enough energy to exercise, but eating too close to your sweat session can wreck your workout.
So how long before a workout should you eat? It depends on your personal diet and your goals, but a general recommendation is to eat within three hours of a workout.
How Many Times a Day Should You Eat to Lose Weight?
When you’re trying to lose weight, meal timing can be tricky. You don’t want to get too hungry and risk overeating, but you need to keep your daily calorie goal in mind.
How many times a day should you eat to lose weight? “We recommend you eat every two to three hours,” says Benté.
This ensures your body is getting all of the appropriate nutrients and avoids the dreaded “hanger.” “You’re avoiding ever becoming absolutely starving,” says Benté, which can prevent you from blowing your hard work by snacking too much or overeating.
While you don’t need to eat by the clock or time your meals down to the minute, frequent and regular meals and snacks are going to help prevent hunger and keep your energy levels steady.
In addition, paying attention to your macro intake before and after workouts can help ensure you have energy from warm-up to cooldown — and your muscles will be primed and ready for next time.
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A decade or more ago, if you were drinking juice, it was likely apple, orange, or grape, and you’d be sipping it as a beverage alongside your meal. But juice has come a long way.
Your juice of choice today is more likely a mix of veggies (often dark leafy greens) with fruit, and perhaps more adventurous ingredients like matcha, spirulina, or activated charcoal.
Cold-pressed juice is a hot trend, but is it as good for you as you think? Before you start questioning your allegiance to green juice — Should I avoid drinking juice?! — or shell out for a pricey at-home juicer, get the scoop on this pressing issue.
Is Juice Healthy?
Juice gained a reputation as a “healthy food” during World War II, when the government sent it to troops to ensure they were getting enough vitamin C for a strong immune system. Orange juice started showing up on breakfast tables soon after the first frozen concentrate was introduced in 1946.
The morning glass of OJ has been replaced by the grab-and-go bottle of juice. Today, juicing is often seen as a convenient way to get your daily quota of fruit and vegetables or used as a meal replacement (especially if you don’t like vegetables). But is juice really as good for you as you think it is?
Not exactly, say nutrition experts. “While juice provides some vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin C, beta carotene, and potassium, it’s often a concentrated source of the natural sugar in fruit,” says Lisa Cimperman, M.S., R.D.N., L.D., a clinical dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
“This means it’s a concentrated source of calories.” She warns that this can have a negative effect on the waistline. “Our body doesn’t register liquid calories as being filling or satisfying, so individuals frequently find themselves simply consuming more to compensate.”
Is Juice Really High in Sugar?
Is fruit juice really high in sugar? It depends. A cup of orange juice contains 21 grams of sugar, and there are 24 grams in apple juice — only marginally less than the 26 grams in a cup of cola. However, most juice devotees are drinking juice that contains at least some vegetables, not all-fruit juices.
Green juices will have less sugar (some have as little as 4 grams per cup). While some naturally sweet all-veggie juices are slightly higher, like carrot (10 grams per cup) and beet (13 grams per cup), they still contain less natural sugar than fruit juices. (The average American consumes three pounds of added sugar per week!)
What About Fiber and Juice Drinks?
Fiber helps fill us up, and it supports good gut health, too. So what about fiber and juice drinks? In short, juice is lacking in fiber. And while we’re eating way too much sugar on average, we are collectively not eating enough fiber, which is only found in plants like whole fruits and vegetables.
We only get about 16 grams a day, but adults (under 50) should strive for 25 grams (women) and 38 grams (men) per day. Women and men over 50 should try to eat 21 and 30 grams, respectively, per day.
Consider this example: A cup of orange sections has 14 grams of sugar — but orange juice has 33 percent more sugar. However, oranges have 4 grams of fiber; juice has a mere half a gram. But why does fiber matter? Fiber helps slow digestion so that your body burns through the sugars (aka carbohydrates) in fruit (and vegetables) more slowly.
“Fiber is important for a couple reasons,” says Paige Benté, M.S., R.D., C.S.S.D., and nutrition manager at Beachbody. “It gives substance to our food, making us feel fuller longer, improves gut health by moderating transit time, and acts as a prebiotic (the food for all the good bacteria in our gut).”
And it’s not just fiber that can be reduced by drinking juice versus eating fruit or vegetables. Studies show that juicing can reduce the amount of antioxidants provided by fruit by as much as 54 percent.
In short, you’re much better off eating an apple than drinking one.
Should I Do a Juice Cleanse?
Going on a juice cleanse is fashionable, but it’s really just a short-term, high-carb, low-cal diet that, yes, may also provide more antioxidants and phytonutrients than you would otherwise consume. Before you ask yourself “Should I do a juice cleanse?” you should know what you’re getting into — and know that it’s rarely a good idea, says Benté.
Alongside a large dose of sugar (which may be the boost that people feel when doing such a “cleanse”), Benté also notes that you’re missing out on essential proteins and fats, which juices lack.
“For a couple of days, this wouldn’t be dangerous unless you have a medical condition which requires consistent protein intake, or are pregnant,” she says. “But for much longer, this is not a wise idea for anyone.”
A juice-only diet doesn’t offer any advantage over eating a balanced diet and won’t help you absorb any more goodness, says Benté. “Yes, you’re consuming a lot of vitamins and minerals, and juice is easy to digest,” she says. “But our bodies are very adept at breaking down whole foods and absorbing nutrients. If you are eating a balanced, adequate, and varied diet, you will be getting an appropriate amount of vitamins and minerals anyway.”
But what about juice cleanses and weight loss? Are juice cleanses good or bad?
Sorry to burst your bubble: “As for weight loss, weight lost during a juice cleanse is mostly water weight or due to the fact that you are consuming alarmingly inadequate calories, so as soon as you go back to eating your regular diet. the weight will come back,” says Benté. “There aren’t really any pros.”
(Pro tip: Find out what the difference is between a cleanse and a detox.)
Should You Stop Drinking Juice?
Is it time to give away your fancy juicer or shun your weekly visit to your favorite juice bar? Should you stop drinking juice entirely (even your fave organic and cold-pressed spinach, celery, and ginger juice)? While your bank account would definitely thank you, you do not necessarily need to stop drinking juice entirely.
“If you’re generally following a healthy diet, then drinking a glass of fruit juice a day isn’t going to be a problem,” says Monika Siemicka, a specialist dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association. “Aim for a juice that includes vegetables, as they’re naturally lower in sugar than fruit, and just make sure you’re not relying on it as your sole source of fruit and vegetables.”
According to MyPlate, a serving of juice is one cup, or 8 fluid ounces. But if you’re following Portion Fix, a serving of 100 percent fruit juice is 4 fluid ounces. Juice counts as a treat, which can replace a purple container up to three times a week.
That’s likely far less than what your juice bar serves up. But, you can also add a splash of juices like cranberry, orange, and grapefruit to jazz up your plain water anytime.
All Juices Are Not Created Equal
When it comes to making healthy choices, are all juices created equal? If you are consuming juice drinks as part of a balanced diet, it is useful to know which option to choose, as not all juices are created equal in terms of sugar and calories. Here are some of the types of juice drinks you might encounter:
Is Concentrated Fruit Juice Healthy?
What is concentrated juice? Is concentrated fruit juice healthy? If you’re buying cartons of juice from the supermarket, you may notice many of them say “from concentrate.” Concentrated fruit juice has had the water removed so that it can be frozen. This lengthens the shelf life and means it takes up less space when being stored.
The concentrated juice is often rehydrated with nonconcentrated juice, to give the final product a bigger taste punch before being sold.
Watch out for: Added sugars. Processing and storing juice can reduce natural flavor, so sugars and additives are often added during the rehydration process. Your juice should contain no added sweeteners or sugars.
Is Cold-Pressed Juice Healthy?
Cold-pressed juice is created without heat using a hydraulic press, meaning it must be kept in the fridge and needs to be consumed within a few days of production.
Is cold-pressed juice healthy? “The idea is, that by not using any heat, less vitamins and minerals are lost in the process of making cold-pressed juice.” says Siemicka. But whenever you process fruit, you’ll still lose some nutrition and fiber, “and there’s still going to be a lot of sugar,” she adds.
Watch out for: The price. While studies show that cold-pressing might maintain more of a fruit’s original nutrients, it’s also worth bearing in mind that cold-pressed juices and juicers can be eye-wateringly expensive for something that won’t fill you up.
Is Juice From a Juice Bar Healthy?
Juices bars often create your juice right in front of you, allowing you to customize your drink. But is juice from a juice bar healthy for you? The juice may or may not be cold-pressed, but what matters more is the juice purveyor’s cleanliness and food storage practices. Juice is not immune to food-borne illnesses.
Most juice bars do not pasteurize their juices. Keep fresh-made juice refrigerated and drink within a day.
Watch out for: Portion sizes. These juices are often a lot larger than one serving. Cimperman recommends choosing juices that also include vegetables to reduce the amount of sugar and calories you’re consuming.
Is Homemade Juice Healthy?
Is homemade juice healthy (is it healthier than store-bought)? If you like juice and want to spend the money on a juicer, homemade juice can be as healthy as you want it to be. To boost nutrition content, Siemicka recommends “juicing” in your blender, as this retains some of the pulp so it has slightly more fiber.
There are numerous home juicers out there, but they pretty much all strip out the fiber and yield the same end result as you’d get from a juice bar or even at some grocery stores.
Watch out for: Portion sizes again. But the obvious advantage of homemade juice is that you know exactly what you’re putting in it. It also may be cheaper in the long run.
4 Ways to Make Your Juice Healthier
Still want to consume the occasional kale and pear juice drink for a treat as a part of your healthy diet? You may be better off eating your fruit and veggies rather than drinking them, but if you are including juice as part of a balanced diet, here are four ways to make your juice healthier.
The Bottom Line
Juicing can be a part of a healthy, balanced diet, but there’s no reason to go on a juice cleanse or use juice in place of a meal. Enjoy juice on occasion as a beverage, but don’t fall for the hype that juicing your fruits and vegetables is the same as eating them.
If you’re a fan of juice, remember to keep your portions in check, use as many veggies as you do fruit (if not more!), add ice, and swap in fruity water for your juice.
If you’re trying to up your produce intake, arm yourself with plenty of healthy vegetable recipes and consider integrating Power Greens into your healthy diet.