It has always been popular advice for people trying to lose weight to avoid late night snacking.
And no wonder, as a body of research has shown that late-night eating is associated with an increase body weight and increased risk of obesity.
But so far, there are few studies that have specifically investigated why late-night eating is associated with weight gain, and that’s what a recent U.S. study set out to find, according to the Science Alert website.
The study found that eating four hours later than normal actually altered many of the physiological and molecular mechanisms that lead to weight gain.
This recently published research also confirmed that eating earlier in the day is more beneficial for both appetite and weight control.
eat late
To conduct the study, the researchers asked 16 participants to follow two different meal times, for a total of six days.
The first protocol required participants to eat meals early in the day, with the last meal approximately six hours and 40 minutes before bedtime.
The second protocol required participants to eat all daily meals after approximately four hours.
Expressive – iStock
This means that they skipped breakfast and instead had lunch, dinner and dinner, only to have their last meal just two and a half hours before bed.
3 different scales
In addition, the study was conducted in a controlled laboratory and the participants in each group ate an identical diet, while consumption times for all meals were spaced equally by approximately four hours between them.
To understand how eating late affects the body, the researchers specifically looked at three different metrics associated with weight gain:
1- Effect of appetite
2- Effect of time to eat on calorie consumption
3- Molecular changes of adipose tissue
Appetite was measured using two methods: the first was to have participants assess their hunger during the day.
The second technique involves collecting blood samples to check the levels of appetite-regulating hormones in the participants’ blood, such as leptin (which helps us feel full) and ghrelin (which makes us feel hungry).
These hormones were evaluated hourly over a 24-hour period during the third and sixth days of each experiment.
increases hunger
The researchers found that eating late not only increased the subjective feeling of hunger the next day, but also increased the proportion of “hunger” hormones in the blood, despite the participants following an identical diet in both protocols.
Eating late also reduced the number of calories burned the next day.
feeling hungry expression
In participants who had a fat tissue biopsy, eating late was also shown to cause molecular changes that promote fat accumulation.
Meanwhile, these findings collectively suggest that eating late leads to a range of physiological and molecular changes that, over time, can lead to weight gain.
