Although it’s still unclear as to whether you should be scheduling your workouts and meals around the late afternoon surge in energy, Dr. Jeanne Duffy, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says it means at rest (or sleep) our bodies will burn about 130 extra calories during the late afternoon and evening than they do in the middle of the night, without any extra work. This suggests that we should be avoiding the body’s natural calorie-burning dip in the late night and early morning.
For example, eating your breakfast at an abnormally early time, when your body doesn’t need that much energy to maintain its functions, that breakfast might result in extra stored calories as they aren’t being used by the body. This raises questions around the health for shift workers and people who keep unusual hours, and how their bodies might be storing calories that are introduced during these times.
So there you have it, late afternoon and early evening is when your body is naturally burning the most calories.
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