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Meal Phase Shifting

Meaning

Meal phase shifting is a targeted chrono-nutrition intervention that involves deliberately adjusting the timing of meals to either advance or delay the feeding window relative to an individual’s sleep/wake cycle and their SCN central clock. This technique is clinically employed to resynchronize misaligned peripheral metabolic clocks, such as those in the liver and pancreas, which may have been disrupted by irregular eating patterns or social jetlag. Effective phase shifting aims to align nutrient intake with the body’s optimal metabolic efficiency, thereby improving glucose tolerance and supporting weight regulation. It is a powerful tool for correcting metabolic desynchrony.