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. 2025 Aug;79(8):748-755.
doi: 10.1038/s41430-025-01603-3. Epub 2025 Mar 26.

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

Gabriela Pereira Teixeira  1   2 , Nayara Bernardes da Cunha  1   2 , Catarina Machado Azeredo  2 , Ana Elisa Madalena Rinaldi  2 , Cibele Aparecida Crispim  3   4
Affiliations

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

Gabriela Pereira Teixeira et al. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2025 Aug.

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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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: 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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