
It may not matter whether you eat this particular low-carb meal at lunch or dinner
They say that to lose excess weight, you should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
A recent study tested whether weight loss in dieting women was more effective by making lunch rather than dinner (evening meal) the main meal of the day. Over the course of 12 weeks, dieters making lunch their main meal lost 4 lb (2 kg) more than the other group. Furthermore, the lunch eaters had better improvement in their insulin resistance (as measured by HOMA-IR)
From the abstract:
“Background: The association between the time of nutrient intake and health has been described in a few studies. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated the relation between high energy intakes at lunch compared with at dinner on weight loss in overweight and obese subjects.
Objective: We compared the effect of high energy intake at lunch with that at dinner on weight loss and cardiometabolic risk factors in women during a weight-loss program.Design: Overweight and obese women [n = 80; body mass index (BMI; in kg/m2): 27–35; age: 18–45 y] were asked to eat either a main meal at lunch (LM) or a main meal at dinner (DM) for 12 wk while in a weight-loss program.
Conclusions: The consumption of higher energy intake at lunch compared with at dinner may result in favorable changes in weight loss in overweight and obese women after a weight-loss program of 12 wk. The consumption may also offer clinical benefits to improve insulin resistance.”
I don’t have the full text of the research report, so I don’t know what kind of diet the women were on. The researchers seem to be based in both Iran and Great Britain. I don’t know the nationality of the women participating. The metabolism of Iranians may be different from Brits.
Steve Parker, M.D.
I took a quick look at the study as I was curious (being a type 2 diabetic who eats my main meal in the evening). The diet was 60% carb, 23% fat and 17% protein and was combined with 60 minutes of exercise 5 days per week (brisk walking mainly I think). Calorie reduction for both groups from baseline was over 300 cals per day. And if I read it correctly, weight loss was 14lbs for the lunch group and 10lbs for the dinner group with a +/- of 6-7lbs. From this then, I am not sure what to make of it for those of us who eat a low carb/keto diet.