With the fast pace of modern society, skipping meals or eating late has become common. This has become a lifestyle for many Indians living in urban areas and who have long hours of work, combined with long commutes and irregular schedules. Many don’t seem to realise that a long gap between meals can damage your metabolism on a long-term basis and affect your weight, the hormones in your body, and your amount of energy.
While metabolism does measure your rate of burning calories, it is also very much based on a finely regulated system that is controlled by hormones such as insulin, cortisol, and ghrelin. When you skip or go a long time without eating, your body starts to go into “conserve mode”, which means it slows down so that it does not burn as many calories.
Over time, skipping meals or delaying eating could cause your body to store more fat than it should, especially in the abdominal area, because you have consumed a small amount of food.
In India, this trend is becoming increasingly prevalent. Studies indicate that many adults in urban areas tend to eat at irregular times, with a high percentage of them missing breakfast and eating most of their calories in the evening. This has been compounded by a sedentary lifestyle leading to an increase in the number of metabolic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease, which are already widespread in the country.
Insulin resistance is one of the less talked-about consequences of long periods between meals. Prolonged periods between meals lead to lower blood-sugar levels and increased levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. These effects lead to increased feeling of sudden hunger and subsequent binge eating. Additionally, prolonged periods of not having food reduce the body’s ability to optimally use insulin, increasing a person’s risk of developing diabetes over time.
Many symptoms related to the body not having enough energy (having a low energy balance) can sometimes be very subtle and are easily overlooked.
Some symptoms include:
Continuous fatigue, irritability, headaches, and fatigue due to dehydration or eating foods at night that are too high in sugar, too heavy, and when combined with other food items causes digestive problems.
Eating late at night can worsen the body’s internal metabolic clock. Eating at night also prevents the body from using energy efficiently and storing fat efficiently from that meal.
Eating large portions at night can also contribute to digestion problems, weight gain, and sleep disturbance.
The body has an innate clock that regulates when it should eat during the day. Skipping meals or eating very late disrupts the natural feeding cycle of the body. When this occurs, the body’s efficiency of utilising energy and storing energy as fat decreases.
Proper meal patterns include:
Eating every three to four hours daily.
Consuming a well-balanced breakfast to avoid having large meals before bedtime.
Consuming protein, fibre, and healthy fat in your meals will help stabilise blood sugar levels and decrease instances of extreme hunger.
Drinking enough water and limiting caffeine on an empty stomach may also help regulate hunger levels.
Importantly, long periods of not eating do not mean you are fasting in a healthy way.
Although there are plans for structured fasting, care must be taken when fasting without supervision of an expert otherwise, fasting can potentially cause more damage than good. Metabolic health is not only about the types of food you consume, but also about the times of day you eat. Irregular meal patterns may seem unimportant in the short term, but in time they can slow metabolism down and lead to an increase in chronic diseases without warning. With lifestyle-related diseases on the rise in our country, restoring structure to our mealtimes is one of the most simple and powerful things we can do to achieve better overall health.
By Dr Pandurangan Basumani. senior consultant interventional gastroenterologist & director, Kauvery Hospital, Vadapalani, Chennai