Eat before sleep leads to weight gain

Eat before sleep leads to weight gain


Late diners beware. You might be gaining weight as you sleep.

A study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that people who eat late dinners had much higher blood sugar and burned less fat than those whose meals came earlier in the day. And that can lead to weight gain.

The research has important implications for people with diabetes and obesity, conditions that are on the upswing in the United States.

Scientists note that eating the same calories each day is no guarantee the impact on your body will be the same. Much is dependent on the time of day those calories are ingested. Your body handles the food differently based on when you sit down for a meal.

For this study, researchers recruited equal numbers of men and women who were separated into two groups and who ate identical dinners. The difference was that one set of volunteers ate their meal at 6 p.m., while the second did so at 10 p.m.

Everybody then went to bed at 11 p.m. and were awakened at 7 a.m.

Tests revealed the late diners had blood sugar levels that peaked 18% higher than the people who ate four hours earlier. Additionally, the late group burned fat at a rate that was 10% lower.

One thing researchers are unsure about is whether the timespan between eating and bedtime accounts for the differences. For example, would the change in blood sugar and fat burning not occur if someone eating at 10 p.m. but went to bed at 3 a.m., rather than 11 p.m.? That is a question for another study.

So, don’t eat too late in the evening if you want to avoid weight gain. You may go to sleep after bedtime, but your body keeps on working.

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