The best time to eat dinner has been debated for years. Some claim an early meal is ideal, while others say you’re just fine eating when the mood strikes.
While many people are just trying to squeeze dinner into their busy schedule, it makes sense to also want to eat at the optimal time for your health.
You might be wondering whether or not it’s OK to eat late at night or if you should aim to eat your last meal well before bedtime. And you may ask yourself if it’s a problem to have a late-night snack just before hitting the sheets.
According to nutritionists, it turns out there’s some flexibility regarding the optimal time to eat dinner. While there’s no definitive “best” time, experts agree that there is a better time to eat your last meal of the day. Here’s what they suggest and how to make your meal schedule work for you.
The Best (or Better) Time to Eat Dinner
A 2022 study published in the journal Cell Metabolism found that people who are overweight or obese and eat dinner at 5 P.M. burn about 60 more calories at rest than those who eat at 9 P.M. Eating later in the evening also produces higher levels of hunger hormones like ghrelin, meaning that people who eat dinner closer to bedtime tend to feel hungrier.
Based on those findings, the researchers determined that eating between 5 P.M. and 7 P.M. is ideal for people concerned about weight management.
A 2021 study published in the journal Nutrients found that eating dinner earlier, around 6 P.M., can stabilize blood glucose levels compared to eating at 9 P.M., which lowers the risk of developing conditions like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Results also indicated that eating dinner earlier can boost metabolism, potentially lowering the chance of weight gain.
Most importantly, eating earlier means you’re less likely to trigger gastrointestinal discomfort. “I recommend eating dinner at least two to three hours before you plan to go to bed so that you have time to digest the food and have it moving past the stomach,” says Dana Ellis Hunnes, a senior dietitian at UCLA Medical Center and assistant professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “If you go to bed with a full stomach, you might be more likely to experience reflux (a condition where stomach contents go back up into the esophagus), which can be very unpleasant.”
Reflux can cause chest pain, nausea, swallowing problems, and difficulty sleeping due to discomfort.
How to Figure Out the Best Time to Eat Dinner—According to Your Lifestyle
It’s usually helpful to look at your eating schedule as a whole when trying to figure out the best time to eat dinner to keep yourself from getting overly hungry and maintain stable blood sugar levels, according to Patrice Paolella, a lecturer in the Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences at Rutgers University.
“Base the timing of meals from your first meal of the day and allow three to four hours to pass before your next meal or snack,” she says.
For example, let’s say you have your first meal of the day at 9 A.M. and plan to be in bed by 9 P.M. You would have lunch at 1 P.M., eat a small snack at 4 P.M., and then have dinner at 6 P.M. But if your first meal is at 11 A.M., and you tend to go to bed around 10 P.M., you may want to push dinner back to 7 P.M., she says.
Because I wake up at 5 A.M. to exercise before my four kids get up and like to go to bed at 9:30 P.M. to try to get at least seven hours of sleep, this is what my ideal meal schedule would look like according to Paolella’s advice:
- Wake up at 5 A.M.
- Eat breakfast at 8 A.M.
- Have lunch at noon.
- Eat dinner at 5 P.M.
- Go to sleep at 9:30 P.M.
My current schedule is similar to this, although I usually have a hearty snack between lunch and dinner—and dinnertime can vary, depending on the kids’ activities.
If you happen to have the odd meal outside of these parameters, there’s no need to panic—it just raises the odds that you may experience reflux, indigestion, or gas. But even that isn’t a guarantee.
Should You Eat Lighter Meals Later in the Day?
Some research suggests that front-loading your day’s calories can help improve blood sugar fluctuations and overall metabolic health, but nutritionists say it’s also important to pay attention to your hunger cues.
Eating lighter meals later in the day, like a hardboiled egg and apple slices or a small serving of chicken with carrot sticks, can make things easier for your digestive tract overnight. “However, if you are waking up in the middle of the night hungry, you may need to eat a more substantial meal,” Hunnes says.
Samantha Cochrane, a nutritionist at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, suggests eating smaller portions as you wind down for the night. “If you are going to eat closer to going to bed, the amount that you eat before bed matters,” she says. “If you eat a large meal or snack, there is more volume of food that needs to be digested, which means it is more likely to cause reflux or interrupt your sleep.”
Instead, “a small meal or snack could be better as it would require less digestion and will likely pass through your stomach quicker to reduce the chance of reflux,” Cochrane says.
Is Eating Right Before Bed “Bad”?
If you have to eat right before bed, nutritionists stress that you’ll be OK—it’s just not ideal. “Our bodies need time to digest the food, so if we eat too close to bedtime or late at night, lying down on a full stomach can affect your sleep and metabolism, as well as increase your risk of acid reflux or heartburn,” says Paolella.
A lot of this has to do with gravity, Hunnes says. “If you lie down flat after eating, it’s easier for food to reflux or back up into the esophagus because you don’t have gravity pulling it down into the small intestine as much,” she explains. But what you eat matters, too.
“Foods known for reflux—tomatoes, chocolate, mint, and caffeine—should be limited close to bedtime, as should very fatty foods which slow down digestion and increase risk for reflux,” Hunnes says. She also suggests limiting gas-producing foods like broccoli, beans, and Brussels sprouts to lower the odds of gastrointestinal discomfort while trying to sleep.
Is There an Ideal Time to Eat Dinner?
“Your own personal rhythms matter more than a specific or prescribed time,” Hunnes says. So, the answer is: kind of, but it depends on your routine.
Paolella suggests consuming nutrient-dense foods in each meal, including whole grain carbohydrates, fruits, beans, lean animal or plant protein, plant-based sources of fat like avocados or nuts, and a half-plate portion of non-starchy vegetables.
Having a solid mix of protein, fiber, and fat at each meal should help you get the nutrition you need while also helping you to feel fuller for longer, Cochrane says.
Ultimately, the best time of day to eat dinner is two to three hours before you go to bed. But, if you eat outside of that window, you should still be just fine.
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