STUDIED AT WHAT TIME PEOPLE EAT AND AGREED: If you already skip meals, let it be this
A lot of studies have shown that it is not only important what you eat, but also when you eat
If you don’t want to gain weight, it’s not just the number of calories you take in that matters, but also what time of day you do it, scientists from the American University of Vanderbilt in Nashville have announced.
“There are enough studies conducted on humans and animals that indicate that it’s not just what you eat that matters, but also when you eat,” said Carl Johsnon, a biology professor at Vanderbilt.
Significant effect on fat burning
To test this hypothesis, the scientists studied the metabolism of six people who ate at different times of the day, writes the portal Medical News Today. All participants were older than 50 years, which means that they belong to a group in which the risk of developing metabolic disorders increases.
In the first trial, all participants ate the same breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In the second, they were denied breakfast, but after dinner, as an additional meal, they were given a caloric ‘snack’ before bed. Breakfast at eight in the morning and a late ‘snack’ at 10pm had the same calories, 700, and were nutritionally equal. The amount of physical activity of the participants was the same in both tests.
The scientists then used special tools to monitor the work of their metabolism and the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats. And found that, regardless of an equally caloric meal and equal physical activity, the time of food consumption had a significant impact on fat burning.
Better to skip dinner than breakfast
In other words, a ‘bite’ at ten o’clock in the evening delayed the body’s ability to break down fat. On average, participants who ate breakfast burned 15 grams of lipids (fat) more in 24 hours than those who ate late. In the long run, this can lead to significant fat deposition, experts note.
“This confirms the assumption that meals day and night affect how digested food is consumed and stored, and that a meal before bed will delay fat burning,” they explained at Vanderbilt.
The fact that the body’s daily biorhythm regulates fat burning has important consequences on eating habits, ie it confirms the thesis that it is better to skip a meal before bed than breakfast. Their work was published in the journal PLOS Biology.
