Circadian Clock and Weight Loss

Your circadian clock governs the rhythms of sleeping and waking, but this is not all. More importantly, this internal clock regulates how and when hormones are released, stimulating everything from hunger to muscle growth and repair. In the mornings, cortisol is released to help us wake up and face the day. Late in the day, melatonin is released to help us fall asleep. At night, while we sleep, human growth hormone is released (under optimal conditions) which stimulates the growth and repair of muscle mass as well as the healing of injuries.

When we mess with our circadian clock--by staying up late, eating in the middle of the night, sleeping until noon the next day, flying halfway around the globe, doing shift work--we mess with our hormones. And hormones basically run everything. When your hormones are out of whack, nothing functions properly. You might gain weight, get sick, experience difficulty thinking, have trouble falling asleep and/or staying asleep, get depressed, become anxious, etc.

In order to successfully regulate our weight, our bodies function best when we eat according to our circadian clock. This means eating within a 12 hour window, at the maximum, and only eating during the day. According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick, a 9-hour eating window is the most beneficial for weight loss, blood sugar regulation, fasting glucose levels, and lowered triglycerides. Check out this TED talk for more details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOXQgyjRm0I

If you are fighting obesity, taking a couple of simple steps to help regulate your hormones could make a very big difference. Start by eating--and this means absolutely anything that goes into your mouth except plain water--only during a 12 hour window. Most people think they are already doing this, but often they are not counting that first cup of coffee or tea in the morning. This was the case with me. I often drank my first cup of coffee around 6-7am, but also ate until 8pm. Now I am pushing my morning coffee back to 8am at the earliest, and not eating after 8pm. Although my first meal is always lunch--at 12noon--I didn't realize that my cup of coffee started the clock, so to speak.

When you become comfortable with the 12-hour eating window, you might push the boundaries a little. Maybe just on the weekends you could narrow the eating window a bit more, say to 10 hours. Small steps in this direction might help with increased weight loss as well as improved hormonal functioning.

If you are looking for weight loss support, I am available for coaching either online, over the phone, by email, or face-to-face. Please leave me a message!