For those of us checking our weight and looking to lose weight or not to put on weight, a new research says that, it is not only about what you eat but WHEN you eat it…
Eating lunch too late may make you fat…This finding could help develop more effective weight-loss plans.
Read below for more…
Via DailyMail
It’s not just what you eat – it’s also when you eat that is key to losing weight, according to a new study.
Researchers found that people who eat their main meal earlier in the day have a better chance of beating the bulge.
Meanwhile those who tucked into a late night kebab lose ‘significantly less weight’ than early eaters, and also put themselves at greater risk of developing diabetes.
The findings, published in the International Journal of Obesity, could help develop more effective weight-loss plans.
Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the University of Murcia studied 420 overweight people who followed a 20-week weight-loss treatment programme in Spain.
Senior author Dr Frank Scheer, from BWH said: ‘This is the first large-scale prospective study to demonstrate that the timing of meals predicts weight-loss effectiveness.
‘Our results indicate that late eaters displayed a slower weight-loss rate and lost significantly less weight than early eaters, suggesting that the timing of large meals could be an important factor in a weight loss programme.’
The team divided the particpants into two groups: early eaters and late eaters. During this meal, 40 per cent of the total daily calories were consumed.
Early eaters ate lunch any time before 3pm and late eaters, after 3pm. They found that late eaters lost significantly less weight than early eaters, and displayed a much slower rate of weight loss.
Late eaters also had a lower estimated insulin sensitivity, a risk factor for diabetes.
The researchers found that timing of other, smaller, meals did not play a role in the success of weight loss.
However, the late eaters – who lost less weight – also ate fewer calories during breakfast and were more likely to skip breakfast altogether. Late-eaters also had a lower estimated insulin sensitivity, a risk factor for diabetes.
The researchers also examined other traditional factors that play a role in weight loss such as total calorie intake and expenditure, appetite hormones leptin and ghrelin, and sleep duration.
Among these factors, researchers found no differences between both groups, suggesting that the timing of the meal was an important and independent factor in weight loss success.
Study co-author Doctor Marta Garaulet, from the University of Murcia, added: ‘This study emphasises that the timing of food intake itself may play a significant role in weight regulation.
‘Novel therapeutic strategies should incorporate not only the caloric intake and macronutrient distribution, as it is classically done, but also the timing of food.’