Joseph Mercola

The vast majority of people eat across 12 hours or more, which is a recipe for metabolic disaster. Health statistics bear this out, showing that 93.2% of Americans are metabolically unfit.

Time-restricted eating (TRE) is one of the most foundational strategies to stay healthy, and when done appropriately can also help balance your sex hormones.

Your body has two primary energy systems. One of them is activated when you eat. When your blood sugar goes up, your body uses that glucose for energy. When you don’t eat for a period of time, your blood sugar goes down, which switches when your body is metabolically flexible to a different energy system that uses ketones derived from fat instead of glucose.

These energy systems are intimately tied to your circadian rhythm. Food is the most important regulator for the clocks inside your cells. If you don’t get your feeding times right, your circadian rhythms, which are responsible for turning cellular protein production on and off, will become seriously impaired.

Three key rules of TRE are: Your eating window should be shorter than 12 hours; avoid eating first thing in the morning — wait at least two or three hours; avoid eating right before bed. Have your last meal at least three hours or more before bedtime. With those rules in mind, your eating window could be anywhere from two to 10 hours, tailored to your unique circumstances