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Chronotype and associations with dietary intake, meal timing, body composition, and metabolic biomarkers
Understanding how chronotype affects dietary habits can provide insights into nutritional psychology. This research investigated the correlations among chronotype, dietary intake—including energy and nutrients—meal timing, body composition, and metabolic biomarkers in healthy women in Europe and Pacific New Zealand.
The study focused on 287 non-pregnant women aged 18 to 45 years, using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) for body composition analysis, including metrics such as whole-body fat percentage (BF%) and the android-to-gynoid (AG) fat ratio. Additionally, researchers calculated body mass index (BMI) and assessed chronotype through the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ). To evaluate dietary intake, participants maintained a 5-day estimated food record, and fasting venous blood samples were analyzed for metabolic biomarkers.
The findings revealed that 54% of participants identified as intermediate chronotypes (IT), 34% as evening types (ET), and 12% as morning types (MT). Notably, the ET group exhibited higher BMI (31.4 kg/m²), BF% (36%), and AG fat ratio (0.98) than the MT and IT groups (BMI: 26.1 kg/m², BF%: 34%, AG fat ratio: 0.87). Evening types also reported greater daily energy intake than morning and intermediate types (p = 0.03).
Meal timing highlighted significant differences: MT and IT women consumed more energy, protein, carbohydrates, and fats before 10:00 AM, whereas ET reported higher intakes of these macronutrients after 8:00 PM. In particular, ET women with elevated BF% and AG ratios typically had lower morning and higher evening energy, carbohydrate, and fat intakes. Moreover, the overall metabolic health of ET was poorer than that of MT and IT, as evidenced by unfavorable lipid profiles and glucose homeostasis (all p < 0.05).
In conclusion, this study indicates that evening types tend to consume fewer micronutrient-dense foods and show a marked disparity in energy intake between morning and evening, contributing to their higher body fat percentage and greater risk of obesity. [NPID: Chronotype, meal timing, dietary habits, metabolic]
Year: 2026
