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Chrononutrition-based dietary strategies for effective weight loss

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2026)Cite this article

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Chronotype is a well-established determinant of sleep timing, cognitive and physical performance, body temperature, and metabolic function, and has recently been associated with diet quality and eating habits. The central circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) orchestrates 24-h rhythms based on light-dark cues and aligns peripheral oscillators distributed across multiple organs, including those in the gastrointestinal tract [1, 2]. Because individuals differ in their intrinsic circadian timing, preferred schedules for sleeping, eating, and activity vary widely, allowing classification into intermediate, slightly early, slightly late, or extreme chronotypes [3,4,5].

Individuals with an intermediate chronotype adapt their sleep, activity, and eating schedules more easily, whereas evening chronotypes face greater challenges, as modern society is structured around daytime activity and nighttime rest. This misalignment has been consistently linked to poorer metabolic health and increased obesity risk [5]. Despite this, sleep timing and chronotype are still insufficiently considered in clinical nutrition practice, where recommendations often focus only superficially on subjective sleep quality rather than circadian timing.

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Funding

Our studies are supported by the Associação Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa, São Paulo (AFIP). BCS is the recipient of a fellowship from the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). ST is a recipient of a Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) fellowship. MLA is a recipient of a CNPq fellowship and of a grant from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP #2020/13467-8 and #2023/01555-8).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Psicobiologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, Brazil

    Bianca Camilo Schimenes, Sergio Tufik & Monica Levy Andersen

  2. Associação Fundo de Incentivo à Pesquisa (AFIP), São Paulo, Brazil

    Tathiana A. Alvarenga, Sergio Brasil Tufik & Sergio Tufik

  3. Instituto do Sono/AFIP, São Paulo, Brazil

    Sergio Brasil Tufik, Sergio Tufik & Monica Levy Andersen

Authors
  1. Bianca Camilo Schimenes
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  2. Tathiana A. Alvarenga
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  3. Sergio Brasil Tufik
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  4. Sergio Tufik
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  5. Monica Levy Andersen
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Contributions

BCS contributed to the conception, writing the original draft, review, and editing. TAA contributed to major revisions and editing. MLA, and SBT contributed to major revisions and correction. ST contributed to the supervision of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Monica Levy Andersen.

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Camilo Schimenes, B., A. Alvarenga, T., Brasil Tufik, S. et al. Chrononutrition-based dietary strategies for effective weight loss. Eur J Clin Nutr (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-026-01733-2

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