Introduction
Do you want to lose weight without counting calories, joining a club or living off meal-replacement shakes? Are you looking for a method that promises lasting success – with no yo-yo effect? Looking to lose weight quickly and also slow the aging process?
The solution: the Chronodiet, which helps you get the figure you want while improving your health and without having to give up your favorite foods.
Another benefit of the Chronodiet is how easily you can incorporate it into your everyday life. All you have to do is get the timing right and structure your meals properly.
How the Chronodiet works
No doubt you will have heard the old adage “breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper”. If you stick to this, you will find it easy to get started on the Chronodiet and will soon establish a new eating rhythm.
The first step is the easiest
The basic rule of the Chronodiet: start with just three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. Another important thing to remember is to leave a gap of four or five hours between breakfast and lunch, and between lunch and dinner. Ideally you should leave at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast to encourage your body to break down its fat reserves.
The Chronodiet is a long-term lifestyle concept that helps you to achieve your ideal weight and align your biological processes to the relevant times of day. For example, your mealtimes will match your body’s natural rhythms, i.e. when your body is best able to take in and process food. Each meal is guaranteed to be an enjoyable, varied experience.
Well-balanced nutrition is key
However, the key to success is not just sticking to the basic rules of the Chronodiet, but also when you eat or don’t eat. Another important element is what you eat at each meal.
Please try not to go completely overboard when eating or to eat every food type at every meal. A better approach is well-balanced nutrition in line with the principles of the Chronodiet.
This is because your body processes sugar, fat and protein differently at different times of day. You should primarily eat carbohydrates in the morning, a well-balanced mixture of protein, fats and carbohydrates for lunch, and a protein-rich meal in the evening. This healthy nutrition plan attuned to your chronobiology avoids insulin peaks, keeps you feeling suitably full between meals, and improves your metabolism – as long as you avoid snacking.
Chronodiet Approaches
The basic principle of the Chronodiet is based on the breaks between meals. As well as the rhythm described above, there are various other options to choose from, depending on what best suits your everyday life or is easiest for you.
Intermittent fasting
The best-known form of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 version. This allows you to eat over an eight-hour period before fasting for the remaining 16 hours. In practice, your daily schedule might look like this: breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch around 12 p.m. then the last meal of the day at 4 p.m. The important thing to remember is to have the last meal at least eight hours before midnight.
Dinner canceling
Other possible rhythms are 18:6 and 20:4, which involve fasting for 18 or 20 hours respectively. However, you do not have to eat three meals a day, you could have two or even just one. A version without dinner, also known as “dinner canceling”, is another particularly effective option. Breakfast is the one meal you should never skip.
Fast days
Another intermittent fasting method is to have one fast day a week when you do not eat any solid food. Alternate day fasting (ADF) – where you fast for a day, eat the next, and so on – is also popular and effective. Another key point of this is that you only eat three meals a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) on non-fast days, with no snacking in between.
