Dr. Michael Mosley has revealed that those who want to lose weight should avoid eating late at night as it can alter the body’s ability to handle food. He once tested the theory for himself and the results that came back were “quite shocking”.
The diet guru started by making an effort to start eating dinner by 7.30pm, as well as avoiding too many late night snacks.
“Doing so is almost certainly good for the waist,” he said, confirmed by a recent study by the University of Nottingham and Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
The researchers asked 82 healthy but overweight women to go on a weight loss program, where half were asked to finish eating by 19:30 at the latest.
The women did not normally finish their dinner until well after 10pm and after 12 weeks both groups lost weight, with those who switched to eating earlier in the evening losing more (15lb) compared to those of the late eaters (11lb).
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“In other words, just by changing the time they ate, the early eaters shed an extra 4 pounds,” Dr Mosley explained.
“They also lost an extra inch around the waist and experienced greater improvements in their cholesterol and blood fats.”
He stressed that these two groups of women still consume the same amount of calories, but the researchers believed that late-night eating could affect the genes that control people’s body clocks, leading to an increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“I was not entirely surprised by this, because a few years ago, as part of a scientific documentary, I did an experiment where I had a classic British braai at 10:00 and then again at 22:00 with a lot of ate bacon, eggs and sausage. , “he said.
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“Immediately after my morning meal I had a blood sample taken, and then again every half hour for the next few hours.
“After that, I had nothing but water until 22:00, when I had exactly the same meal. Again, my blood was taken regularly over the next few hours.
“When the results of the blood tests came back, it was pretty shocking.”
Dr Mosley recalled that after eating a full English braai that morning, his blood sugar and fat levels rose rapidly, but soon returned to normal as his body used it as fuel or stored it around his intestines for later.
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“Further evidence that late-night eating really changes your ability to handle food comes from a recent study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US, which found that when healthy volunteers eat their dinner within an hour of going “They burned 10 percent less fat overnight than when they stopped eating three hours before their eyes.”
He continued: “What is clear from many studies is that our bodies do not like to handle a lot of food late at night.
“A midnight snack will have a worse impact on you than the same food eaten earlier in the day.”
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