When I was in college my eating followed a pattern that I imagine was shared by many fellow college students. My morning started with nothing but a sugary coffee drink from Starbucks. Lunch was more substantial - a sandwich or salad from the cafeteria or a nearby restaurant. By the end of the day I was ravenous. Some nights I would gorge with friends at the local Chipotle after orchestra rehearsal. Other nights I would try to “be good” by doing yoga and eating a salad. Inevitably, whether I was trying to “be good” or not, I’d always find myself feverishly snacking on anything available late into the night - cheesy pizza sticks from a local pizza place, cookies stashed away in my pantry, ice cream from the freezer. Not surprisingly I gained some weight on this diet. My skin also went crazy, as did my blood sugar, appetite, mood, and energy. Worst of all my sleep, which has always been a bit wonky, was the worst quality sleep of my life so far. Insomnia reigned nightly.

Looking back on my college eating habits I can of course spot a lot of foods in the rotation that I would not eat in such abundance now. There were plenty of problems with the “what” of my food choices, but believe it or not the “when” of my eating was equally problematic. In short, my eating habits were out of sync with my body’s natural rhythm and metabolism. Through the certification program at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating I learned about the concept of “eating rhythm.”

Eating Rhythm refers to the when of eating rather than the what.
When are we eating our food?
How much food is being eaten at what time of day?
Is our meal timing in alignment with our body’s natural rhythms?
And how consistent is that rhythm over the course of a week?

My college eating rhythm was similar to a rhythm that I’ve noticed many Americans have been trying to adhere to when it comes to food. It’s the rhythm of restricting nutrients throughout the day only to feel ravenous and needing to eat ALL the foods at night. If you’ve tried this particular eating rhythm I hope you’ve already discovered that it just does not work! And the answer to why it doesn’t work actually has as much to do with the when of eating as it does with the what.

There does seem to be a general understanding out there that nighttime eating can work counter to our health goals, and in broad terms that belief is true (with a caveat that for some of us eating at night is absolutely necessary and that is okay!). As the sun goes down our hormones shift towards preparing the body for sleep. As the skies darken, Melatonin rises. Growth hormone is released to help our bodies rest and repair overnight. Sleep also helps us balance the hormones that regulate our appetite. In fact, sleep deprivation is a sure bet to increase grehlin, our body’s hunger hormone, and decrease leptin, the satiety hormone, leaving us primed to feel, well, hungry!

In other words, when our bodies are living with the natural rhythm of our surroundings, they are not primed for digesting large amounts of food at night. Night is the time when we are most primed to sleep, rest, repair, and rebalance our bodies.

But you try getting a stressed out college student not to eat at night when they’ve worked hard and deprived themselves (or eaten only sugar, salad, and coffee) all day long! You don’t have to be a brilliant scientist to predict that in this situation trying not to eat at night would be a failing and maddening strategy.

It’s maddening because our bodies are wired to try not to starve to death. In the morning and as the sun rises in the sky throughout the day, we are metabolically wired to take in nourishment to fuel our activities. If we are restricting calories (or more importantly nutrients) throughout the day, then it’s predictable that our bodies will call out in desperation for food (ANY food!) at night. If you aren’t able to resist that call, it’s not a sign that you have some kind of willpower problem, it’s because your body is trying to prevent you from starving.

Looking back to my college habits, I can see that by locking myself into a pattern of restricting calories in the morning and afternoon (not to mention that start-of-the-day caffeine /sugar jolt to my body!), followed by the inevitable binge at night, followed by the inevitable night of poor sleep, I was setting my body in a self-perpetuating rhythm, with each step of the pattern reinforcing the next step. Sleep deprivation caused me to wake up tired, cranky, and seeking that immediate energy boost from coffee. Wanting to control my weight, I would try to “be good” throughout the day, but this being good was a misguided attempt to restrict calories instead of eating quality nutrients that my body desperately needed, and that left my body both underslept and underfed. My underslept and underfed state led to a predictable eating frenzy at night, fueled by a feeling of ravenous hunger, which caused me (among other things like stress, anxiety, college parties, TV-watching, and homework) to once again not sleep enough, leading to a restart of the whole pattern the next day.

Knowing what I know now about my body, it’s no surprise to me at all that with this eating rhythm I quickly moved up two pants sizes, more critically lost overall health, and began to struggle with some serious anxiety.

Bringing my body back to its naturally preferred weight and an improved state of health involved not just improving the quality of my diet. It meant adjusting the rhythm of my eating and living. It meant eating both breakfast and a filling lunch, which usually left me much less hungry in the evening time and much less prone to the bottomless container of cookies or ice cream pint. It meant learning to prioritize sleep, making room for winding down in the evening and preparing my body for rest and repair.

I still struggle with all of this. It’s not that I now eat and sleep in perfect rhythm. Far from it. Sometimes I get home late after a concert and need a snack. Or second dinner! Sometimes night arrives really early (like 4:00PM in the Rhode Island wintertime) and not eating after dark is just plain unreasonable. Sometimes my mind keeps me awake at night, and the next day I feel more hungry, cranky, and unstable than usual. What has changed for me is that I am now more aware of my eating and living rhythm. I know the patterns that tend to be most supportive of my health, weight maintenance, energy, and happiness. I can identify when things are off balance without dropping into harsh self-judgment, and I have strategies I can employ to help me move back towards balance.

If reading this made you want to examine or experiment with your own eating rhythm here are some steps to consider taking:

#1 Prioritize Sleep

I know this one’s tough, but good sleep can take us a long way. It’s a part of our natural rhythms that we simply cannot opt out of! If sleep is a struggle for you, try experimenting with your bedtime routine. Do you have a way of winding down in the evening? Try dimming the lights when you’re home in the evening and avoiding screen time (or if that’s not possible purchasing some blue-light-blocking glasses like these). If you can make your sleeping space (even if that’s just your bed) a calm and relaxing space absolutely do it! That might mean investing in a new mattress or some bedding that you love and helps you relax.

What helps you wind down at night? Feel free to share in the comments!

#2 Focus on eating fulfilling, well balanced, nourishing meals during the day.

This means probably eating some breakfast and lunch. Of course we all have different time and schedule constraints that might necessitate some experimentation. Whatever your meal timing, frequency, or daytime eating rhythm needs to be, remember that restricting nutrients during the day is a recipe for overeating at night. Making sure your meals have some quality protein, fat, and ideally lots of vegetables can help feed your body the necessary fuel it needs throughout the day which will leave it feeling more fulfilled at night.

#3 Tune into your hunger and satiety signals.

Hunger is not our enemy. It’s a sign that our bodies are hungry, and that’s a very normal thing for a creature that needs food to feel! When you feel that hungry feeling, get curious. Where do you feel it in your body? How often are you feeling it? When did you eat last? When did you have a glass of water? Is there a time of day when those hunger signals become really strong? Do you notice any connections between hunger and sleep or hunger and stress?

Our satiety too can be a powerful indicator of what helps us thrive. By satiety I mean that feeling of being pleasantly full, not overly stuffed. The feeling that leaves you calm and satisfied for awhile, not crashing and seeking another boost of sugar thirty minutes later. What foods tend to help you feel satisfied? What kinds of meals help you feel satiated for longer periods of time rather than coming back for more and more every few minutes?

All of these questions have value, especially when explored in a spirit of curiosity rather than self-judgment.

Let me know if you try experimenting with your eating rhythm and how it works for you!