Intermittent fasting may sound like a simple formula for weight loss : eat within a certain window, fast for the rest and watch the kilos drop. But what if you have been following the fasting window and still not seeing the results you expected? The timing of your meals may matter more than you realise. Eating a late dinner and simply carrying your fasting window into the next morning may not be the metabolic reset you think it is.
Dan Go, a high-performance health and fitness coach with more than 20 years of experience, is breaking down where you might be going wrong with intermittent fasting . In an Instagram video shared on August 25, the fitness coach explains how eating late at night and consequently skipping breakfast may work against your metabolism, emphasising that “when you eat matters as much as what you eat. When pre-diabetic men ate all their food before 3 pm for five weeks, their insulin sensitivity improved, blood sugar dropped, and appetite went down. The same meal at 8 pm can spike your blood sugar harder than 8 am. Dan Go is a prominent fitness and high-performance health coach with over 20 years of experience, who helps busy professionals lose fat, build muscle, and optimise their longevity without sacrificing their careers.
Instead, he recommends having an early dinner. The fitness coach explains, “The best way to fast is not by skipping breakfast. It’s actually having an early dinner. So, most people skip breakfast and call it intermittent fasting, but they’re fasting on the wrong side of the clock, and it’s the reason they’re not getting the results they want. Dan also points out that your body is naturally better equipped to process food in the morning, when hormones and digestive enzymes are more active, than at night, when the body begins to wind down. Your metabolism is closely tied to your circadian rhythm, which prepares your body to use energy and process food during the daytime. Hence, eating late at night may work against your body’s internal clock and disrupt its natural rhythm. The fitness coach notes, “Your body also handles food better early in the day as opposed to later. Your insulin sensitivity is high in the morning and falls off at night. The fitness coach further elaborates, “Eating close to bed wrecks your sleep. Meals within three hours of bedtime raise your core temperature, delay melatonin release, and also increase nighttime awakenings. And last, your worst food decisions are made at night. When you’re tired and when your willpower is down, it makes you reach for that bowl of cereal you didn’t plan for. He shares practical, science-backed lifestyle protocols across his coaching platform and social media.
Your metabolism has a bedtime and it’s earlier than when you sleep. When you have bad sleep, it tanks tomorrow’s hunger hormones, causing an uncontrollable appetite loop.
