Midnight Snacks Will Make You Fat

By Miss Cellania in Food & Drink, Science & Tech on Sep 6, 2009 at 12:04 am

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!

“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

Tags: diet, schedule, snack, weight gain

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Miss Cellania
Sep 6th, 2009 at 12:30 am
I posted this at 1AM while eating vanilla wafers.
jdschu
Sep 6th, 2009 at 1:22 am
More likely the problem is that when people get up at 1am and have a snack they aren’t generally going to be in the mood for a salad. They’re far more likely to get oreos and milk or a bowl of ice cream or some chips and salsa or whatnot. Adding an extra 500 calories of unhealthy food outside your three meals per day every couple of nights is going to add weight, same as if you had it with dinner or at 4pm.
Justin Brown
Sep 6th, 2009 at 1:47 am
Truthfully, nobody should be eating larger portions consistently after 7 PM or so. Our metabolism naturally starts to power down at around that time and thus, even if you’re eating healthy, your body is less equipped to metabolize it as quickly or effectively.

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.
felixthecat
Sep 6th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hmmm….the other day a study was released that indicated the exact opposite of this one.

Obesity = too many calories in + too few calories going out.
glassmusic
Sep 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am
im with felixthecat on this one. i remember reading the same study theyre referring to. it was a month or so ago i believe.

im not a lab mouse, and if i eat at midnight, im not interrupting my sleep pattern to do it.
Jake D.
Sep 6th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
During the day you work off a lot calories by moving around and you just naturally have more energy. Your metabolism is going faster, like Justin mentioned.

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.
gerrycody
Sep 6th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
i’ve known this for a while now and not eating past 8pm is a daily goal that i most likely will not be meeting today.
my 3.5 yr old grandaughter eats late and i think this may be why she has nightmares, or not.
Cathy
Sep 6th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
This is interesting and I’m glad I had a chance to read it, but it suffers from one major problem: we really don’t have any proof that it can be generalized from mice to humans. Until this proof exists, I think that we should be skeptical about it (i.e., not thinking, “hey, we can eat gallons of ice cream as long as we eat it in the morning!” ) Although I do wonder about something else… could this mean that people who are natural night owls might be more likely to be overweight because they have to eat during the day, when everyone else is eating, and that’s not natural for them… someone should do a study!
Dr Dan
Sep 6th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
Oh my GOD! We have solved the world’s food shortage problems! All we have to do is tell starving children all over the world to eat their crumbs late at night and they will get fatter! GENIUS!
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!
Lady Helena Handbasket
Sep 7th, 2009 at 1:55 am
Marvellous Dr Dan! Love it!
Michigan Fur Coats
Sep 9th, 2009 at 10:19 am
When you eat is dictated by what your sleeping schedule is. I go to bed at midnight so I eat around 9 pm. If you go to bed at 9pm then of course you want to eat earlier.

I thought everyone knew this info already?!

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