How much weight you gain may depend on when you eat, according to a new study that looked at the timing of meals in mice. Scientists at Northwestern University fed two groups of mice the same amount of high fat food, but one group ate during regular waking time, while the other ate during what would normally be their sleeping period. The second group gained twice as much weight as the first group!
It is not yet clear whether the difference is due to hormone production or the disruption of sleep patterns. Link -via Digg
"For a long time we questioned whether or not eating patterns had anything to do with gaining weight," says obesity expert Dr. Louis Aronne of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He points to previous observational research suggesting that people who skip breakfast in favor of massive meals in the evening hours tend to be overweight. "We had no proof that it's a real problem," says Aronne, who was not involved in the study. "If an experiment like this is replicated in humans, it might clarify for us just how much time of day matters when it comes to obesity."
It is not yet clear whether the difference is due to hormone production or the disruption of sleep patterns. Link -via Digg
Even for people who consider themselves night owls and don't have a traditional schedule, the natural rhythm of the body's metabolic processes is not easily shifted.
Obesity = too many calories in + too few calories going out.
im not a lab mouse, and if i eat at midnight, im not interrupting my sleep pattern to do it.
If you eat at night and then just go to bed you're working off none of those calories. I've known about this for a while and have been trying to apply it to my diet... but it's hard when you get off work at midnight and the plate of lasagna is taunting you from the refrigerator.
my 3.5 yr old grandaughter eats late and i think this may be why she has nightmares, or not.
WAIT! I have also used this theory to solve the financial crisis! We should all save one paycheck from the last week of the year and we will be guaranteed to be rich regardless of how much we spent in the other 51 weeks!
I thought everyone knew this info already?! :)