--- title: Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health description: Two new papers published in the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society suggest that it’s not just what you eat, but when you eat that affects your health. canonical: https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-30T12:00:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T22:53:18.804Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health og:description: In defense of a more clock-focused diet og:url: https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt681f1f290ac9f168/69887211e20a87ff07a8e51c/50-healthiest-foods-popcorn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2100 og:image:height: 1181 og:image:alt: healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, popcorn og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health twitter:description: In defense of a more clock-focused diet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt681f1f290ac9f168/69887211e20a87ff07a8e51c/50-healthiest-foods-popcorn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Maria Masters / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Maria Masters / Health.com Contributor Jun 30, 2016 12:00 PM UTC  Danny Kim for TIME by [Maria Masters / Health.com](https://time.com/author/health-com/) ## Maria Masters / Health.com Contributor Jun 30, 2016 12:00 PM UTC Do you ever postpone dinner because you’re in the middle of a project? Or skip breakfast because you overslept? As long as you avoid binging later on, it’s no big deal, right? Well, maybe not. Two new papers published in the _Proceedings of the Nutrition Society_ suggest that it’s not just _what_ you eat, but _when_ you eat that affects your health. Having irregular meals may set you up for obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes—regardless of how many total calories you’re consuming. **RELATED:** [**3 Breakfast Rules to Follow to Lose Weight**](http://news.health.com/2015/01/09/3-breakfast-rules-to-follow-to-lose-weight/) One of the reviews examined international eating patterns and found a possible link between obesity and eating more [calories in the evening](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10339096&fileId=S0029665116000306). The other paper concluded that people who consistently ate six meals a day had better [cholesterol and insulin levels](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=10301622&fileId=S0029665116000239) than those who ate meals with variable frequency—in this case, anywhere from three to nine meals a day. “We found that adults consuming calories during regular meals—at similar times from one day to \[the\] next—were less obese than people who have irregular meals, despite consuming more calories overall,” says Gerda Pot, PhD, a visiting lecturer in the Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division at King’s College London who worked on both papers. Really? While it doesn’t seem to make sense that meal timing could affect your health _that_ much, the studies are part of an emerging field called chrononutrition, in which researchers are exploring the link between [metabolism](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20306911,00.html) and circadian rhythms. Many metabolic processes in the body—such as appetite, [digestion](http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20551987,00.html), and the metabolism of fat, cholesterol, and glucose—follow patterns that repeat every 24 hours, explains Pot. “Eating inconsistently may affect our internal body clock,” she says. And that disruption might lead to weight gain and other health risks. **RELATED:** [**12 Low-Calorie Foods That Speed Weight Loss**](http://www.health.com/health/video/0,,20973798,00.html) But just how significant is the effect of varying your meal times? “This is a really important and valid question which we unfortunately cannot answer yet,” says Pot. “It would be of great interest to fully understand how much impact disruptions in our circadian rhythms could have on \[our\] obesity risk.” So for now, it seems like a good idea to eat at the same times every day if you can. But if you _can’t_, there are plenty of other ways to stay healthy, too. _This_ [_article_](http://www.health.com/weight-loss/meal-timing-weight-gain) _originally appeared on_ [_Health.com_](http://www.health.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/"},"headline":"Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health","datePublished":"2016-06-30T12:00:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T22:53:18.804Z","description":"In defense of a more clock-focused diet","url":"https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/","keywords":["Research","health","eating"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt681f1f290ac9f168/69887211e20a87ff07a8e51c/50-healthiest-foods-popcorn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maria Masters / Health.com"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt681f1f290ac9f168/69887211e20a87ff07a8e51c/50-healthiest-foods-popcorn.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, popcorn","caption":"healthiest foods, health food, diet, nutrition, time.com stock, popcorn","creditText":"Danny Kim for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4384779/random-eating-health-risk/","name":"Why Your Random Eating Schedule Is Risky for Your Health"}}]}] ```