The evidence exists to show that fad diets and the regular gym work-outs will not help you shed those undesirable kilos of belly fat and more importantly keep it off. There is much more to the science of weight loss and metabolism. Healthy food choices and regular physical activity are a must , but we have to make permanent changes to eating habits. The study below proves once again that the length of time between eating has a bearing on our metabolism.

A study asked participants to record their eating patterns on a smartphone app. Not what they ate, but when they ate. A key  finding is that participants who were eating for more than 14hr a day and then reduced the eating pattern to 10-11 hours actually reduced weight, had more energy and even better sleep. This means we need 12-13 hours of no food and ideally no alcohol to help metabolise the energy we consumed during the day. In fact sleep is a energy burner, but we need to go to sleep on an empty stomach.

Study Highlights

The daily eating pattern in healthy adults is highly variable from day to day
More than half of the adults eat for 15 hr or longer every day
Sleep duration parallels the fasting duration
Reducing the daily eating duration can contribute to weight loss

A diurnal rhythm of eating-fasting promotes health, but the eating pattern of humans is rarely assessed. Using a mobile app, we monitored ingestion events in healthy adults with no shift-work for several days. Most subjects ate frequently and erratically throughout wakeful hours, and overnight fasting duration paralleled time in bed. There was a bias toward eating late, with an estimated <25% of calories being consumed before noon and >35% after 6 p.m. “Metabolic jetlag” resulting from weekday/weekend variation in eating pattern akin to travel across time zones was prevalent. The daily intake duration (95% interval) exceeded 14.75 hr for half of the cohort. When overweight individuals with >14 hr eating duration ate for only 10–11 hr daily for 16 weeks assisted by a data visualization (raster plot of dietary intake pattern, “feedogram”) that we developed, they reduced body weight, reported being energetic, and improved sleep. Benefits persisted for a year.

​http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550413115004623