Planning Metabolism

Our metabolism is made up of all the systems that run our bodies. That means that our metabolism keeps us going. It makes everything function as well as it can. Our metabolism also follows the pattern of the sun. It’s referred to as our bio-circadian rhythm. Let me explain.

Your metabolism starts to boot up everyday around 6-7am. Once it starts up it keeps going up and up until it hits its peak around 12-1pm. Then it hits a dip in the afternoon from 2-5pm (when you usually want to take a nap) and then goes back up for supper to the evening 5-8/9pm. It continues to gear down for the night when it hits its lowest between 2-5am.

What does this mean? It means that if we want to optimize our food intake, we would be wise to follow the pattern presented. This means we have breakfast and it leads up to the biggest meal of the day at lunch and another smaller meal at supper. Ideally you want to finish eating about 3 hours before you go to sleep so our digestion doesn’t cut into our recovery/healing time at night.

Now, as always, everyone is different and there are many reasons why this way of eating may not work for you. Shift workers may have a hard time with this if they have to sleep during the day. If you include intermittent fasting into your routine you may have to shift things around. But on the whole it is wise to keep this metabolism pattern in mind when planning out our meal plans.

Kristy