For optimal nutrient digestion and absorption, eating on a schedule may be the best way to help your body keep off excess weight.

This may be the overlooked factor in the weight loss equation.

“Every organ has a clock,” said study researcher Satchidananda Panda, of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. That means there are times that our livers, intestines, muscles and other organs work at peak efficiency, and other times when they are — more or less — sleeping, Panda said.
These metabolic cycles are critical for processes such as cholesterol breakdown, and they should be turned on when we eat and turned off when we don’t, Panda said. When mice or people eat frequently throughout the day and night, it can throw off those normal metabolic cycles, he added.