Austin diners are eating earlier
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
More Austinites — some who continue to work remotely — are making earlier dinner reservations: 5pm early.
The big picture: The shift to eating and exercising while the Sun's still out appears to be part of a larger trend to prioritize work-life balance and sleep over hustle culture.
By the numbers: 5pm dinner reservations are slightly more popular now than they've been in the last five years, according to data Resy shared with Axios.
- And reservations made for the 6, 7 and 8 o'clock hours in Austin have dropped.
Between the lines: Eating dinner early could benefit your metabolic health, experts say.
What they're saying: Limiting your calorie intake close to bedtime — about three to four hours before bed — could help with blood sugar control and weight management, says Frank Scheer, Harvard Medical School's chronobiology program director.
- "When we delay the food intake and keep everything else the same, that by itself leads to an increase in cravings, changes in appetite hormones and fewer calories burnt across the waking hours," said Scheer, who has conducted research around mealtime an metabolic health.
The reason is likely connected to the circadian clock, which reduces the energy we burn after a meal in the evening, he says.