Eating late turns out to be a fatter after all…

Does it matter when you eat your dinner? According to research by Harvard Medical School, it is: sitting down to the table in time – between five and six o’clock – helps if you want to lose a few kilos.

“Whoever eats four hours later burns fewer calories and stores more fat,” the researchers said.

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Late eaters are more at risk

Being overweight can lead to chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer or other conditions. The time at which you eat can seriously curb that risk, the study shows. “Previous research has shown that eating late is associated with an increased risk of obesity and less success in losing weight,” said lead researcher and professor of medicine Frank Scheer. “We wanted to find out exactly why eating late increases that risk.”

Four hours earlier at the table

Scheer and his team did an experiment with sixteen patients with a high BMI. One group was given a strict schedule of meals in the early evening, around 5:00 PM. The other group had the same meals, but four hours later in the day. For the last two weeks before the study, the participants were also given sleep and wake schedules and followed strict, identical diets.

Strict care was taken to keep environmental factors equal in the participants in both groups, such as their physical activity, their sleep and the exposure to daylight. During the experiment, their hunger, appetite, blood values, body temperature and energy expenditure were closely monitored.

What seems? The researchers note that eating four hours later makes a significant difference to hunger levels, the way we burn calories after a meal and the way we store fat.

How?!

Starting your evening meal later mainly has an effect on the hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin. Leptin levels, which make us feel full, dropped faster in the participants who ate later.

That means: those who eat late lose their feeling of satiety more quickly. Who eats early, stays satiated longer and has less chance of having toast later in the evening.

Another benefit of sitting down to the table early: burn calories faster. Those who ate later in the day burned fat more slowly. Their fat percentage was therefore higher. Bottom Line: The time you eat affects how your body stores fat and regulates the hormones that make you feel hungry. The results of the study were published in the scientific journal Cell Metabolism.

“This study shows the impact of eating late versus early,” says Scheer. “In the experiment, we looked at calorie intake, physical activity, sleep and light exposure. In real life, a lot of those factors can be influenced by the time a person eats, so it’s better that way. early as possible.”

Foto (c) Getty Images

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