A study reveals that eating late at night increases your risk of obesity by slowing your metabolism and making you hungrier the next day.
Doctors have cautioned against midnight munching for years because it is impossible to burn off the calories before bedtime.
Researchers from Harvard University have demonstrated that it also affects the body the following day.
Compared to individuals who ate at 6 p.m., those who consumed their last meal at 10 p.m. burnt fewer calories the next day and had greater levels of hunger hormones.
In addition, they had lower amounts of hormones in their bodies that help them feel full and satisfied after meals, and they were more prone to gain weight.
Dr. Nina Vujovi, a trainee in circadian rhythms in health and illness and the study’s lead author, stated: “In our study, we wondered, “Does the time that we eat matter when everything else remains constant?
And we discovered that eating four hours later significantly alters our hunger levels, how we burn calories after eating, and how we store fat.
The researchers evaluated 16 patients between the ages of 20 and 60 who were overweight or obese.
In a laboratory, each participant followed two schedules: one in which they ate their meals early, with supper at 6 pm, and the other in which they ate their meals four hours later, with dinner at 10 pm.
Before beginning each regimen in the laboratory, patients slept and awoke at the same time for two to three weeks.
They ate the same meals at the same times at home for the final three days.
Participants frequently documented their hunger and appetite, gave blood samples throughout the day, and had their body temperature and energy expenditure assessed during the schedules.
In the laboratory, environmental elements that may influence a person’s appetite or energy expenditure, such as exercise, posture, sleep, and light exposure, were tightly controlled.
In addition, the researchers collected tissue samples from a subset of patients throughout both schedules to compare their fat storage.
They discovered that eating later in the day boosted levels of the hunger-inducing hormone ghrelin the next day, particularly for sugary or salty snacks.
Lower levels of the hormone leptin, which helps us feel full and content, were found.
When patients ate later, they burned calories more slowly and had greater fat accumulation in tissue samples.
The research team would like to investigate more women in the future, as just five of the sixteen participants were female.
Dr. Frank Scheer, an authority on sleep and circadian problems, remarked, “This study demonstrates the effects of late versus early meals.
In this study, we isolated these effects by controlling for confounding variables such as calorie intake, physical activity, sleep, and light exposure. However, in the real world, many of these variables may be altered by meal timing.
In large-scale research where precise control of all these parameters is impractical, we must at least explore how additional behavioral and environmental variables influence these molecular processes underlying obesity risk.
The findings were published in the Cell Metabolism journal.
Eating late at night raises blood sugar levels, which increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, the variety associated with obesity.
The sleep-inducing hormone melatonin is elevated around bedtime, and eating disrupts blood sugar regulation.
According to a 2021 poll conducted in the United States by the International Food Information Council Survey, approximately 60 percent of respondents aged 18 to 80 admit to snacking after 8 p.m.
A 2019 survey conducted by the ice cream firm Nightfood indicated that 83 percent of Americans snack at least once each week, and 20 percent nibble every night.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend four to five smaller meals every day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner, and one or two snacks.
The average dinnertime in the United States is 6.22 p.m., however, it varies between 4.30 p.m. and 10.59 p.m.
