Weird Bariatric Science

Smithsonian.com reports scientists have found people who eat late into the night may be having more trouble keeping excess weight off. The researchers argue humans didn't evolve to be eating long after dark, but that electricity made it feasible to stay up all hours and we keep snacking into the wee hours.

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies analyzed the daily food and beverage habits of 150 participants over a three-week period. They found that the majority of those people spread out their eating across 15 hours or longer each day, consuming less than 25 percent of their calories before noon and more than 33 percent of them after 6:00 p.m.

Gill and Panda asked a smaller group of eight overweight people from their initial study to adopt restricted eating hours. “We told them to pick their own 8 to 11 hours, but to be consistent every day for 16 weeks,” Gill says. “That includes weekends, when our larger study had showed that many people woke up later and thus ate later as well.”

The small group lost an average of 8 pounds in the 16 weeks, and they kept it off. “These people were extremely happy to do this longer on their own,” Gill says. “After a year, the group returned and their weight loss, on average, remained about the same.”

It's not clear exactly how the group lost weight. They weren't asked to change the types or amounts of foods they ate, but they may have consumed fewer calories simply by eating during a shorter time frame. The group also reported improved sleep, which could have been a factor.

I am tempted to give this a try, it sounds less painful than some weight-loss strategies.