Wait at least one hour after waking before having your first cup of tea, coffee, or breakfast. This allows melatonin levels to drop, preventing the pancreas from being ‘asleep’ and ensuring better insulin production to process food.
Aim for a 10-hour time-restricted eating window daily. This is a good target that provides significant health benefits and allows for some flexibility if deviations occur.
Avoid consuming tea or coffee after lunch. This is crucial because caffeine remains in your system for many hours, potentially disrupting deep sleep and leading to a cycle of insufficient sleep and morning coffee reliance.
Go to bed early to ensure sufficient sleep. Early bedtime leads to a better growth hormone spike, which is essential for bodily repair, including the stomach lining.
Implement a 10-12 hour time-restricted eating window as a family. This simple change has multiple benefits for social, emotional, and physical health, fostering family togetherness and making behavior change easier.
Maintain an eating window anywhere between 8 and 12 hours. This range is known to provide a lot of health benefits.
For those aiming to improve cardiac performance or endurance, target an 8 to 10-hour eating window. Mouse studies show tremendous benefits on endurance and reduced cardiac arrhythmia within this specific timeframe.
If an 8-10 hour window is challenging, a 10-12 hour window is still beneficial and easier to maintain. This flexibility ensures adherence while still gaining significant health advantages.
Limit all coffee and tea consumption to your designated time-restricted eating window. This practice helps maintain circadian rhythm alignment and supports overall health.
If you rely on coffee to get out of bed, consider it a warning sign of insufficient sleep and try going to bed earlier. Reducing this urge can improve natural wakefulness.
If you must consume coffee or tea outside your eating window, drink it black without milk and sugar. This minimizes the impact on your pancreas and insulin response when melatonin levels are still high.
To reduce excessive coffee intake, try cutting down on one cup of coffee or tea during the weekend. This allows you to manage potential headaches and gradually wean yourself off caffeine, leading to better sleep.
Consider completely stopping caffeine for two to three months once a year. This ‘golden time’ can lead to very deep, restorative sleep and improved focus.
Periodically, for a few weeks (e.g., 2-6 weeks), try a shorter eating window of 6-8 hours. This can act as a ‘deep cleaning’ for your system before returning to your regular 10-12 hour window.
Shift workers should practice time-restricted eating on their off days. This helps build resilience, vitality, and repair capacity to mitigate the adverse impacts of demanding shift work.
Shift workers should try to stick to eating within a 10-12 hour window even on working days, aligning it with their work schedule. This helps maintain some circadian rhythm benefits despite challenging work hours.
It’s acceptable to deviate from your time-restricted eating window one or two days a week, such as on weekends. This flexibility does not negate the benefits gained from consistent time-restricted eating during weekdays.
To combat jet lag, avoid food during flights and prioritize rest (eyes closed, ears closed, system resting). Upon arrival, immediately align your first meal (breakfast/dinner) with the new time zone’s schedule.