When Akshay Kumar insists on finishing dinner by 6:30 pm, it’s not just another quirk of his famously disciplined lifestyle. Kareena Kapoor Khan too has revealed she wraps up her meal around 6 pm and is in bed by 9:30 pm. Malaika Arora won’t touch food after 7 pm, while Nagarjuna says eating by 7 pm has been his norm for decades. Add Anushka Sharma and Manoj Bajpayee to the list, and you start to notice a pattern – Bollywood’s fittest stars are all dining before sunset.

But is this just celebrity discipline, or is there science behind shutting the kitchen early?

What Happens If You Eat Before Sunset

Experts believe that the idea of early dinners ties back to something simple: circadian rhythms. Your body clock is designed to be active in daylight and to rest at night. Eating in sync with this clock helps digestion and metabolic health.

Studies show that insulin sensitivity – the body’s ability to process sugar- is stronger earlier in the day. Push your main meal late at night, and your body is more likely to store it as fat instead of burning it for energy.

Photo: Unsplash

Dr Pal AKA Dr Palaniappan Manickam, a Gastroenterologist and Health Expert known for his engaging and humorous approach to educating the public about gut health on YouTube, who regularly discusses circadian eating, explains it in one of his YouTube videos, “When you start eating along with the insulin cycle and stop eating after sunset, miracles will happen – including your weight loss.”

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Why Eating Before Sun Set Might Work

Several studies show that early dinners, that too before sun set, are significantly beneficial.

A 2023 study show reductions in BMI and improvements in lipid profiles across healthy adults and cardiometabolic patients, indicating benefits when meals are confined to daylight and early evening rather than late night.

The same study also showed that consuming meals between sunrise and sunset strengthens circadian rhythmicity and metabolic regulation, supporting earlier dinners that avoid the melatonin-elevated night period after sunset.

While not explicitly “before sunset,” a randomised crossover showed that moving dinner from 21:00 to 18:00 (closer to daylight hours) lowered 24-hour and nocturnal glucose and improved next-morning substrate oxidation, consistent with benefits of pre-sunset timing when sunset is early.

There aren’t many studies showing that eating specifically before sunset is the ideal dinner time, multiple studies do find that eating earlier confers significant benefits; using sunrise and sunset as cues can be a simple way to align both the body and mind to eat at the right time.

How To Do It Right

Now if you also want to start eating your dinner early, nutritionists caution against jumping straight into extreme fasting windows. Instead:

Note the first and last bite of your day, including coffee or snacks, and gradually shorten the window.

Start with 12 hours between dinner and breakfast, then ease toward 10-8 hours if it suits your body.

Don’t skip breakfast if it leads to bingeing later.

Avoid swapping dinner for late-night “harmless” desserts, which still break the fast.

​​​​​​READ MORE: Akshay Kumar Reveals He Keeps A Full-Day Fast On Mondays. Here’s Why