For years, health experts have advocated eating meals early, in order to maintain a healthy weight and overall well-being. Eating your dinner early is considered a good habit that people looking to lose weight must develop. According to a new study, eating very late in the day may contribute to weight gain and may lead to obesity or increase the risks of obesity. In other words, your habit of eating very late at night may push your body towards obesity. The disorder increases a person's risk of developing other health conditions, including heart ailments, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. Obesity is a lifestyle disorder, which may be prevented by making big and small changes in your daily routine and your diet.
The study in question was presented at ENDO 2019, which the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in New Orleans in the U.S. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Colorado in Denver, used three different types of technology to record the sleep patterns, physical activity and eating habits of the subjects. These were used to identify people at higher risk of being overweight. During the week-long study, the 31 participants with an average age of 36 were enrolled in an ongoing weight-loss trial program, which put them on a time-restricted feeding regime. This meant that the participants could only eat during a restricted time period of each day.
The participants ate during an average of 11-hour time period every day and slept for about seven hours every day. Researchers observed that those participants who ate later in the day, also tended to have a later bedtime as compared to those who ate earlier, but that they slept for almost the same time duration. Additionally, researchers found that late meal timings in participants was linked with higher body mass index (BMI) and higher body fat. Lead study author Adnin Zaman, M.D., of the University of Colorado in Denver said, "We used a novel set of methods to show that individuals with overweight or obesity may be eating later into the day. These findings support our overall study, which will look at whether restricting the eating window to earlier on in the day will lower obesity risk."
Talking about the applications of the study in treatment of obesity, Zaman said, "Given that wearable activity monitors and smartphones are now ubiquitous in our modern society, it may soon be possible to consider the timing of behaviours across 24 hours in how we approach the prevention and treatment of obesity."
(With inputs from ANI)