Does eating earlier in the day help your body work better?

When people eat all their daily calories earlier in the day instead of later, and consume the same total number of calories, their fasting blood sugar and diastolic blood pressure are lower.

In overweight and obese young adults, eating within a 6-hour window either early or late in the day led to a 3.7–4.6% weight loss over 8 weeks, similar to the weight loss seen with unrestricted eating, showing that total calorie intake, not when food is eaten, determines weight loss.

In overweight and obese young adults aged 19–29, eating only between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. for eight weeks led to lower systolic blood pressure, lower average daily glucose, lower fasting insulin, and lower insulin resistance compared to eating at any time of day, even when weight loss was the same.

In overweight and obese young adults, eating within a 6-hour early window leads to larger decreases in leptin and the leptin-to-adiponectin ratio than eating later in the day or eating without time restrictions, even when weight does not change.

In overweight and obese young adults, eating only during an earlier part of the day is linked to lower levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone and triiodothyronine than eating later in the day or eating without time restrictions.