Eating dinner at 4pm

This weird thing has been happening recently where I've been getting hungry for dinner around 4pm. I'm not sure if it's because I wake up and go to bed on the earlier side. I am usually awake before 6am and go to bed by 9pm, although those timeframes can vary from day to day and week to week.

The side effect of this is that I've inadvertently fallen into a 16/8 intermittent fast schedule. I don't eat anything after dinner and then have breakfast around 8am. Okay, it's a bit less draconian than 16/8, but it's close enough.

The particularly surprising aspect of all this is that I have struggled with late-night eating for most of my adult life. It was only 6 short weeks ago that I stopped my late-night eating habit, although it feels much, much longer. Now, my body seems to have adjusted and I am barely hungry, if at all, at bedtime despite eating dinner so early.

From what I've read, most people who do intermittent fasting tend to skip breakfast and eat later in the day. This makes sense since our bodies tend to be least hungry in the mornings due to our circadian rhythms. However, studies have also shown that eating your calories earlier in the day results in more positive health outcomes.

Either way, I don't know if this new eating pattern will stick, but I'm certainly enjoying it while it lasts!