Do you recognize why late-night munching raises the risk of obesity? To learn the answer, read the tale.
About 42% of the adult population in the United States is overweight or obese, which increases the risk of developing diabetes, cancer, & other chronic diseases. Even though it’s commonly accepted that avoiding late-night snacks is a key part of any healthy diet, very few studies have looked at how eating so late affects the three main factors in controlling body weight and, by extension, obesity risk: calorie intake, energy expenditure, as well as molecular transitions in fat tissue. A recent study provides experimental proof that eating late reduces energy output, increases appetite, and promotes changes in adipose tissue, all of which may increase obesity risk.
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According to senior author Frank A. J. L. Scheer, PhD, Director of the Medical Chronobiology Project in Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, “we sought to test the processes that may explain why late eating raises obesity risk.” “We and others have previously established that eating late at night raises the risk of obesity, causes weight gain and hinders weight control efforts. It was important for us to learn the rationale behind this.”
Roughly 42% of the adult population in the United States is obese, and this is a major risk factor for developing diabetes, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Even though it’s often known that eating late at night is bad for you, very little research has looked at how late eating affects the three primary components in body weight management and, by extension, obesity risk: calorie intake, energy expenditure, and biochemical alterations in fat tissue. New research confirms, through controlled experiments, that eating late leads to lower energy output, higher hunger, and alterations in adipose tissue, all of which may contribute to an increased risk of obesity.
Senior author Frank A. J. L. Scheer, PhD, director of the Medical Chronobiology Project in Brigham’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, explains that the study’s goal was to investigate potential processes by which eating late at night raises the risk of obesity. “It has been proved, both by us and by others, that consuming late at night raises the risk of obesity, increases the amount of body fat, and makes it more difficult to lose weight.
We were curious to learn more about what had occurred.
Scheer and his team hope to broaden the applicability of their results by including more women in future investigations. Five women were included in this study because of the need to account for their menstrual cycles, which made it more difficult to recruit women but reduced the chance of bias. Scheer and Vujovic hope to learn more in the future about how the timing of meals and sleep affects energy levels.
“The results of this analysis contrast the effects of late vs early eating. We were able to separate these effects by adjusting for potential confounders including energy intake, exercise, sleep duration, and exposure to light, but in the real world, many of these aspects may be affected by meal timing as well “Scheer remarked. We need to take into account how other behavioural and environmental variables modify these biochemical processes underlying obesity risk in larger-size studies when tight control of all these aspects is not practicable.