Women should eat within an hour of waking up rather than skipping breakfast or practicing intermittent fasting, in order to stabilize cortisol, balance hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin), and avoid nocturnal cravings as well as sleep disturbances.

noli's read

The science of chrono-nutrition partially supports this approach. An observational study conducted by Witbracht et al. (2015) confirms that women who regularly skip breakfast exhibit a disrupted cortisol rhythm and higher levels of bodily stress. Furthermore, review articles on intermittent fasting emphasize that front-loading food intake helps synchronize our internal biological clocks, which better regulates ghrelin (hunger) and leptin (satiety). However, the idea that meal timing shifts systematically trigger a cascade of negative symptoms, such as uncontrollable end-of-day cravings, is exaggerated. The actual impact varies greatly from one person to another depending on overall meal quality and daily stress levels. Finally, the strict recommendation to eat within the first hour of waking is primarily based on expert opinion. While it logically relies on the natural curve of our waking hormone, this ultra-precise window is not supported by rigorous comparative clinical trials (RCTs) in women.

the sources

1. 1Sievert K et al. 2019
2. 2Cioffi I, Evangelista A, Ponzo V, et al. 2018
3. 3Lowe DA, Wu N, Rohdin-Bibby L, et al. 2020
4. 4Liu D, Huang Y, Huang C, et al. 2022
5. 5Jamshed H, Steger FL, Bryan DR, et al. 2022