Eating late at night adds to weight

[LahoreEstate]

Monday, September 07, 2009
Late-night snackers are more likely to gain weight, research suggests.

A team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference. Scientists found that when mice ate at unusual hours, they put on twice as much weight, despite exercising and eating as much as others. The study, in the journal Obesity, is said to be the first to show directly that there is a “wrong” time to eat. Recent studies have suggested that circadian rhythms, the body’s internal clock, have a role in how our bodies use up energy. However, this had been difficult to definitively pin down.

Deanna Arble, lead author of the study, said: “One of our research interests is shift workers, who tend to be overweight.

“This got us thinking that eating at the wrong time of day might be contributing to weight gain.” The experiment looked at two groups of mice over a six-week period. Both groups were fed a high-fat diet, but at different times of the mice “waking cycle”.

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