One thing is sure about eating late dinner or whatever is that it can cause weight gain and high blood sugar levels regardless of calories.
Nutritionist or even Researchers where able to establish the fact that not everyone reacts the same way or manner when they eat late. Although people
who are used to earlier bedtimes had the most weight gain from a late dinner as proved by researchers with Night owls who are least affected by a change in late mealtime when both are considered.
Based on researchers views showing that a strong evidence is established when eating a late meal which will causes weight gain even if you don’t increase the calories consumed at that time.
Food analyst are also saying, when working long days it’s a good idea to eat a healthy snack in the afternoon to curb your appetite for a late dinner and it play a good part on the body.
Normal wisdom has shown that one calorie is one calorie, no matter when you eat it, and that weight gain will occur when eating more calories than you use to. Researchers call this the calories in, calories out theory of weight control which is also established in mathematics.
But it is not really same in real life situation. New discoveries shows that what time you eat may play a significant role in gaining weight.
It was noted from recent study that eating a late dinner can cause weight gain and high blood sugar levels regardless of calories example eating dinner at 10 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. may affect your blood glucose and the ability to burn fat as established from research.
Further studies also shows that late eaters had peak blood sugar levels almost 20 percent higher and fat burning reduced by 10 percent, compared with those who ate dinner earlier regularly.
Looking at published articles in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, saying that eating a late dinner is associated with weight gain and high blood sugar levels, regardless if the meal is the same that you would have eaten earlier.
Quoting further “We were aware of other research that suggested that late eating is associated with obesity, and because association is not the same as causation, based on the ” study author Dr. Jonathan C. Jun, associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University .
Jun explained further without missing words that research team want to understand whether late eating actually changes metabolism in a way that promotes obesity.
Quoting the Prof in his article “So that’s why we set out to do this randomized clinically controlled trial, taking healthy people and make them eat at two different times, control their food, control their diet, and control their sleep times as well,” he said.
The research went further to studied a team of 20 healthy volunteers (10 men and 10 women) to find out how their bodies metabolized dinner eaten at 10 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. with all study participants went to sleep at the same time: 11 p.m.
It was also established that from the findings that blood sugar levels are higher, and the amount of fat burned lower, when eating a late dinner, even when people ate the same meal.
“We weren’t surprised. Other researchers have done similar work looking at circadian rhythms and diet, and other labs have shown that if you eat out of phase with your body’s normal circadian rhythm, you don’t metabolize glucose the same way,” Jun said.
It must be noted that the study found that late eaters had peak blood sugar levels almost 20 percent higher and fat burning reduced by 10 percent, compared with those who ate dinner earlier of the same meal.
Further explanation from similar research saying “The effects we have seen in healthy volunteers might be more pronounced in people with obesity or diabetes, who already have a compromised metabolism,” according to first author Chenjuan Gu, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at Johns Hopkins University, in a statement.
But the most interesting part of this study is that researchers found not everyone reacts to eating late meals the same way based n observation.
The prof went further to say that “What surprised him the most was that not everyone was vulnerable in the same way,” said Jun. “There was a group, you know if you looked at the pattern of activity in the preceding 2 weeks, people who were accustomed to sleeping earlier did the worst when we gave them a late meal.”
Although people that ate as late as 2 or 3 a.m. seemed to be unaffected by the change in their meal saying that “It’s not a one size fits all; there are differences in people’s metabolism that either makes them more vulnerable to late eating or it doesn’t faze them.”
With special thanks to Prof Jun who pointed out that this study was much more detailed than previous research on the subject with Participants wearing activity trackers, had their blood sampled, underwent sleep studies and body fat scans, and ate food containing nonradioactive markers to measure fat metabolism.
Quoting the Prof saying “The people got very intensive monitoring performed when they were in the lab. We drew blood every hour, we had their activities and sleep monitored for 2 weeks before they came to the lab,” said Jun. “We gave what’s called a stable isotope tracer Trusted Source, so when they consumed their food we could measure how much of the fat they ate was burned or oxidized.”
What other researcher are concerned about is that if this study provides conclusive proof showing what you eat that can cause weight gain as explained Jun.
Based on the Prof view saying “Yes, I think this at least shows that there’s biological plausibility or biological explanations for how food timing can affect the way your body handles those calories,” he said.
We must also note that the study was conducted with young adult, healthy weight volunteers, that provides us with some helpful information to guide eating habits,” according to Lisa K. Diewald, MS, RD, LDN, program manager, MacDonald Center for Obesity Prevention and Education at Villanova University M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.
Lisa also added that the findings are significant for disease prevention.
Although the study provides a reminder that shows that cultivating late eating habits are not only traditional factors such as meal content and size, but also meal timing, may factors influence the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease down the road.”
Based on Diewald view, dinner is, by far, the largest meal of the day for most adults in terms of calories.
She went further to explained that busy people typically rush through breakfast and lunch, which often means eating later, and more, than they should.
Diewald went further to recommended having a small, high protein snack such as Greek yogurt sprinkled with nuts in the late afternoon if you know you’ll be home late.
saying “Curbing appetite a bit so that if you have to eat later than anticipated, it can be a snack-size meal,” she said.
But Choices could include eating a small salad with grilled chicken, half a sandwich and fruit, or a cup of vegetable soup and a glass of low fat milk.
Finally Diewald conclude by saying “Aim to eat your largest meal at breakfast or lunch if possible,”.
