If you have not yet learnt the importance of key food hours – track your calories, we have all of the information that you need right here. If you are not sure of the correct way to track your daily calories or know what are the optimal times to prepare your meals, then this is the perfect article for you! Knowing when to eat during the day can be very beneficial to your health, as well as understanding what converts food to energy and how to utilise it to maximise your performance.
If you struggle with under or overeating throughout the day, it may be a good idea to start tracking your calorie intake to make sure that you are reaching the desired amount of nutrients and fuel your body will need to maintain itself. Understanding key hours and, how to track your calories, which times to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner will help you not only keep on track of your desired consumption, but it is also rewarding in giving you the correct amount of energy and digestive time that is needed for your body to perform to its full capability. Today we will be looking at the ideal times to eat and how to effectively track your calories.
The Benefits of Eating At Certain Times
What converts food to energy and understanding key food hours – track your calories is a great way to start understanding your daily nutrition. General guidelines and knowing when to delay a meal or adjust the quantity as there are often events and obstacles in our daily lives. Some of these can be a business meeting, gym or special occasion. Everyone requires a different amount of food and also has dietary preferences and restrictions.
There are many benefits to having certain eating times and understanding how our food is converted to energy. We often leave it to our bodies to tell us when it’s time to eat or have a snack, but this isn’t always beneficial to our health. Some people are used to only eating once or twice a day, and the body will get used to this cycle. Unfortunately, this causes fatigue as there isn’t enough energy and nutrients being received.
Understanding key food hours – track your calories and starting an eating schedule may be tricky in the beginning; however, soon, your body will regulate and predict these times. Consuming three meals a day with healthy snacks in between is the ideal way of meeting your body’s needs to function correctly throughout the day. Here are some of the benefits a regular eating schedule will have;
- Promotes regular digestion
- Less inflammation
- Healthy insulin production
- Helps boost metabolism
- Increased energy
- Lessens cravings
- Improved heart function
- Reduced fat mass
- Healthy weight loss
- Enhanced aerobic capacity
This can also help those who tend to overindulge at meal times. Being restricted to eating at certain times and sticking to key hours can reduce bingeing and losing track of previous meals. Cutting down on the amount of food that is being consumed and understanding how to track your calories will drastically change your body’s health for the better. Intermittent fasting can go hand in hand with an eating schedule, and if you are looking to make changes to help reduce body fat, then this is well worth being looked into and incorporated into your plan.
The Best Time to Eat Breakfast
Many of us are guilty of skipping this meal. It isn’t always the first thing on our minds when we’re in a rush or late for work. However, it is true what many dieticians say, breakfast is an important meal of the day.
Not only does it beneficially impact your body and get it ready for the day ahead, but it also helps to line up your next meal. There has been a lot of debate on what the correct time is to have breakfast, and some even say that it should be skipped, which we’ve learned isn’t a good idea. Let’s first discuss why breakfast is so important. There are several negative effects that skipping breakfast has on the body, such as fatigue, becoming more likely to develop diabetes, stress, and it confuses the hormone that controls hunger.
The optimal time to eat breakfast in the morning is within two hours of waking up, as it boosts your metabolism. If you wake up at different times each morning or prefer to have a set time, then around 7 am the recommended time.
When Should Lunch Be Eaten?
This is often another meal that is skipped or eaten incorrectly. Lunch is just as important as breakfast as it helps to keep your body fueled and energised until dinner time. It does so by raising your blood sugar level, which in turn gives you the boost you need to carry on for the day. This also helps you to concentrate and stay focused, so all in all, lunch is the midday pick me up to your body needs.
Research shows that the ideal time to eat lunch ranges from the earliest being 11 am and 2 pm at the latest. Try to aim for around noon as this is the sweet spot for lunch consumption, but if you are only able to eat at 2 pm, then it is advised to have a snack in between breakfast and this time to continue your body’s energy levels.
The Optimal Time to Eat Dinner
How to understand key food hours – track your calories
Often when people have a filling or late lunch, they will skip dinner. This can cause several issues as the time between your last meal, and breakfast will be extremely lengthy. Missing dinner can sometimes cause nausea, high levels of acidity, sleeplessness and even blackouts. These are only a few of the effects it can have on your body.
Having a healthy dinner at the end of a long day can be the perfect way to reward your body and maintain its overall health. There are also side effects of overeating and having large dinner portions, so it is recommended to keep to light and relatively healthy meals.
In previous years it was believed that dinner should be the largest meal of the day, but this is incorrect. It should be the lightest and breakfast and lunch should be your main meals. It is said that your body’s last metabolic state is between 5 pm and 6 pm, which is when it is advised to eat dinner; however, if your lunch runs late, it is acceptable to eat between 6 pm and 7 pm. Eating after 8 pm is not recommended and can come with negative side effects as well, namely weight gain.
How to Effectively Track Your Calories
There is a stigma when it comes to counting calories as it is sometimes used for incorrect reasons and done wrong. Despite this, counting your calorie intake throughout the day can be beneficial for many reasons. It can help you see mistakes in your diet and help you learn that the foods you consume are not benefiting your health.
Whether you are trying to lose weight healthily or make sure you are giving your body everything it needs, it is important to understand how to properly track your daily calorie intake. Often there are mistakes made, or there is guessing involved, and this can affect your overall number and give you an incorrect reading.
To make sure that you are doing this the correct way, here are some tips and steps you can use;
- Make sure to log in every day
- Know when to weigh and when to measure
- Keep a journal on hand or use your phone’s notes to remember
- Exercise for the same amount of time
Understanding key food hours – track your calories and what converts food to energy may seem like a daunting task; however, once you understand how to initiate and implement simple daily habits, it will become second nature. Utilising food to sustain our bodies and nourish our daily needs will have a positive effect on both our minds and body.
