Chronotype Differences in Body Composition, Dietary Intake and Eating Behavior Outcomes: A Scoping Systematic Review

Abstract

The timing and nutritional composition of food intake are important zeitgebers for the biological clocks in humans. Thus, eating at an inappropriate time (e.g., during the night) may have a desynchronizing effect on the biological clocks and, in the long term, may result in adverse health outcomes (e.g., weight gain, obesity, and poor metabolic function). Being a very late or early chronotype not only determines preferred sleep and wake times but may also influence subsequent mealtimes, which may affect the circadian timing system. In recent years, an increased number of studies have examined the relation between chronotype and health outcomes, with a main focus on absolute food intake and metabolic markers and, to a lesser extent, on dietary intake distribution and eating behavior. Therefore, this review aimed to systematically determine whether chronotype indirectly affects eating behaviors, dietary intake (timing, choice, nutrients), and biomarkers leading to body composition outcomes in healthy adults. A systematic literature search on electronic databases (PubMed, CINAHL, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, Cochrane library) was performed (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews number: CRD42020219754). Only studies that included healthy adults (aged >18 y), classified according to chronotype and body composition profiles, using outcomes of dietary intake, eating behavior, and/or biomarkers, were considered. Of 4404 articles, 24 met the inclusion criteria. The results revealed that late [evening type (ET)] compared with early [morning type (MT)] chronotypes were more likely to be overweight/obese with poorer metabolic health. Both MT and ET had similar energy and macronutrient intakes, consuming food during their preferred sleep-wake timing: later for ET than MT. Most of the energy and macronutrient intakes were distributed toward nighttime for ET and exacerbated by unhealthy eating behaviors and unfavorable dietary intakes. These findings from our systematic review give further insight why higher rates of overweight/obesity and unhealthier metabolic biomarkers are more likely to occur in ET.

Keywords: circadian; eating habits; evening type; meal timing; morning type; nutritional intake.