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Association of meal time patterns with dietary intake and body mass index: a chrononutrition approach from NHANES 2017-2018

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 79, pages 748–755 (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Chrononutrition studies suggest that eating later and extending the eating window are linked to higher energy intake and obesity. However, the relationship between chrononutrition variables and dietary intake, as well as with BMI, is still little explored at a population level. This study explored how chrononutrition variables relate to dietary intake and BMI at a population level.

Methods

We analyzed data from the NHANES 2017–2018, including 2937 participants aged 18 years or older. Dietary intake was assessed by two 24-h dietary recalls. Caloric midpoint, eating window duration, sleep end-first meal and last meal-sleep onset intervals were determined by mealtime.

Results

The findings indicate a trend of increased total consumption of energy (kcal) (p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001), carbohydrates (g) (p = 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001); protein (g) (p < 0.001; p = 0.008; p < 0.001; p < 0.001), fat (g) (p < 0.001; p = 0.007; p < 0.001; p < 0.001), and sugar (g) (p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001; p < 0.001) as the sleep end-first meal interval decreases and the last meal-sleep onset interval, eating window, and energy intake after 8 pm increases, respectively. In addition, our findings suggest a trend of increased BMI in the group with BMI ≥ 30 kg/m² (p = 0.018) as sleep end-first meal interval increases and in the group with BMI < 25 kg/m² (p = 0.006) as the eating window increases.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that eating later and having longer eating window are associated with higher dietary intake and higher BMI.

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Fig. 1: Distribution of chrononutrition variables according tertile, NHANES, 2017–2018.

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Data availability

Data from the study can be found on the publicly accessible NHANES website, and additional data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the CAPES/CNPq. CAC is CNPq fellow: #401761/2022-3. CMA receives support from CNPq grant: 313491/2021-6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chrononutrition Research Group (Cronutri), School of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Gabriela Pereira Teixeira, Nayara Bernardes da Cunha & Cibele Aparecida Crispim

  2. Graduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia, Brazil

    Gabriela Pereira Teixeira, Nayara Bernardes da Cunha, Catarina Machado Azeredo, Ana Elisa Madalena Rinaldi & Cibele Aparecida Crispim

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  1. Gabriela Pereira Teixeira
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  5. Cibele Aparecida Crispim
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Contributions

CAC and GPT participated in the planning, interpretation of results and writing of the manuscript. GPT and NBC extracted the data. GPT performed the statistical analysis. AEMR, CMA, and NBC participated in the interpretation of results, support on the statistical analysis and writing of the manuscript. All authors provided feedback and approved the final version of the manuscript submitted for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cibele Aparecida Crispim.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

NHANES is a public dataset and all participants provided a written informed consent, consistent with approval from the National Center for Health Statistics Research Ethics Review Board (NCHS ERB) (protocol #2018-01 for NHANES cycle 2017–2018).

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Teixeira, G.P., da Cunha, N.B., Azeredo, C.M. et al. Association of meal time patterns with dietary intake and body mass index: a chrononutrition approach from NHANES 2017-2018. Eur J Clin Nutr 79, 748–755 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-025-01603-3

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