Interesting research has just come out from a new study in the Journal of Obesity. The author of the study, Frank Scheer, an associate neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School suggest, “We should start to consider meal timing in addition to calories and meal composition when thinking about weight loss.”
The researchers studied 420 overweight and obese individuals in a 20-week weight-loss program. There was no significant difference in caloric intake or energy expenditure, but the study group contained two distinct groups, those that ate their big meal before 3:00 pm and those that ate their big meal after 3:00.
The study revealed that those who ate their big meal in the early group lost an average of 22 pounds in the study period, compared to the late eaters who lost 17 pounds. In addition, the later eaters had a lower insulin sensitivity, which is a risk factor for diabetes.
This leads us to believe that what we have been hearing over the years—don’t pack the calories in at night—might actually be true.