The best time to have dinner

According toPrevention, focus on eating vegetables, carbohydrates, proteins, and all the nutrients that are beneficial for overall health, but you can optimize your dinner by eating at a better time. What you eat is important, but when you eat it is also important.

Ideal time frame

Most scientists agree that eating between 5 and 7 p.m. is ideal. The later it is, the less food you should consume.

A study published in Cell Metabolism found that people who ate dinner at 5 p.m. burned 60 more calories than those who ate dinner later. Study participants who ate dinner later also stored fat differently and had higher hunger levels.

This means, according to research, 5pm is the best time for dinner if you're trying to lose weight, but eating at this time has other benefits too.

Researchers have found that eating earlier helps us regulate our blood sugar better and improves our fat metabolism, which is a factor in fat storage. Eating an early, light dinner improves sleep, improves digestion, boosts metabolism, and lowers blood pressure.

How to determine dinner time

If you can barely eat at 5pm, don’t worry. Dinner should be 3-4 hours before bedtime to ensure good health because digestion slows down later in the day.

According toCleveland Clinic, having a 3-hour window before bed will improve your sleep and digestion. So if you don't sleep before 10pm, eat at 7pm.

This is especially true for people who are trying to lose weight or have certain health conditions. For people with GERD, eating earlier reduces the chance of food refluxing from the stomach into the esophagus.

According toMayo ClinicYou should also avoid eating too early, as going to bed on an empty stomach can disrupt the quality of your sleep. To avoid stomach rumbling and hunger pangs while lying in bed, try to eat a larger breakfast and a slightly larger lunch than you do for dinner.

The best time to eat will ultimately vary from person to person, depending on schedules and sleep habits, but consistency is key to improving overall health.

Maintaining a consistent eating schedule from day to day has been associated with weight loss, increased energy, and reduced metabolic risk factors for chronic disease.

Pros and cons of eating dinner later

Just because eating dinner earlier is better for you doesn't mean eating it later won't be beneficial. Eating closer to bedtime can be helpful when trying to prevent nighttime hypoglycemia.

There are hormones and amino acids in foods that can help you fall asleep if you eat them before bed. Some foods contain tryptophan, serotonin, or melatonin, which can help you fall asleep, but eating too much too close to bedtime can disrupt your sleep and may not be good for your overall health.

Ultimately, eating too late has more disadvantages than advantages. According toCleveland ClinicEating too close to bedtime (less than 3 hours before bed) can lead to weight gain because the calories are stored as fat while you sleep, instead of being burned.

Studies show that eating too close to bedtime reduces glucose tolerance and increases the risk of obesity by five times.

Don't let this stop you from eating dinner, though, if you miss the ideal time to eat. Eating dinner later or right before bed is better than not eating at all, especially if you're hungry or haven't eaten enough during the day.

Even when you sleep, your body still needs energy to function, as it recovers from the previous day. When you go to bed hungry, your body lacks the calories it needs to replenish its energy. This causes your body to hold on to carbohydrates and fats instead of using them for fuel.

Is dinner light or heavy?

As with most nutritional advice, whether to eat a lighter or larger dinner is largely a matter of personal preference. Some patients with reflux have more difficulty with a large dinner. However, some athletes enjoy and can tolerate a large dinner.

In general, it’s best to eat a lighter dinner and more food throughout the day. Your metabolic rate (how your body processes food, nutrients, and calories) typically peaks around noon. You should eat a larger breakfast and lunch to avoid late-night snacking.

A light dinner is beneficial because it can improve your blood pressure, sleep quality, digestion and metabolism./.