Understanding Postpartum Mothers' Perspectives of Chrononutrition Approaches: A Qualitative Study

Postpartum weight retention (PPWR) is common and associated with poor health outcomes. Traditional weight management approaches have limited success postpartum. Due to infant-related sleep disruptions, late-night eating may be more common postpartum and contribute to PPWR. Chrononutrition interventions, which align energy intake with circadian rhythms in metabolism, demonstrate promise for weight loss in nonpostpartum populations and offer a novel approach to preventing PPWR. However, no studies have explored whether chrononutrition approaches may be acceptable postpartum, which is needed to inform which approaches may warrant subsequent testing.

To characterize perceived determinants of eating timing and understand the feasibility of following various chrononutrition approaches among postpartum mothers.

A qualitative descriptive study using semistructured interviews to query participants about the following chrononutrition approaches, which they also ranked from most to least preferred: bedtime stopping rule (no energy intake within a certain number of hours of bedtime); king's breakfast, pauper's dinner (distributing kilocalories so intake is highest at breakfast and lowest at dinner), and time-restricted eating (shortening the daily eating window to ≤10 hours).

Mothers (N = 10) within 6 months postdelivery recruited from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital and interviewed between August and December 2023.

Interviews were coded through an iterative process using an exhaustive approach.

Themes influencing eating habits included infant schedule and availability of childcare/home assistance. Barriers to chrononutrition approaches included the importance of the evening family meal and enjoying relaxing and eating after children went to bed. Participants most preferred the bedtime stopping rule and were willing to stop eating a median of 2 hours before bedtime.

This study provides novel insights into mothers' perceptions of implementing various chrononutrition approaches, highlighting the importance of external barriers (eg, partner work schedule). Findings can inform the development of novel chrononutrition interventions to manage PPWR.