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Eating late can change how you burn calories and store fat, study shows (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A study suggests eating later in the day can directly impact our biological weight regulation in three key ways: through the number of calories that we burn; our hunger levels; and the way our bodies store fat.

With obesity now affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, this is a valuable insight into how the risk of becoming obese could be lowered in a relatively simple way – just by eating our meals a few hours earlier.

Earlier studies had already identified a link between the timing of meals and weight gain, but here the researchers wanted to look at that link more closely, as well as teasing out the biological reasons behind it.

"We wanted to test the mechanisms that may explain why late eating increases obesity risk," said neuroscientist Frank Scheer, from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in 2022 when the study was published.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Why does that matter? If I burn 2000 calories a day, why does it matter if I burn them at a lower rate while asleep? I’m still going to burn more later, no?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Because you use less calories while you sleep, so excess calories are converted to fat...

And it's harder to burn calories of fat than use calories directly.

So eating late in the day leads to new fat forming. If you ate the same earlier, it would be used immediately for fuel

This is all incredibly basic stuff...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And it's harder to burn calories of fat than use calories directly.

What's that supposed to mean exactly?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

Your body loves fat.

It wants as much as possible.

To burn fat, you have to first use everything in your stomach, and then push through "the wall" where you keep exercising after your body says you need to quit.

Then your body will start the process to burn and use fat for energy.

So if you eat a lot at night and convert it to fat as you sleep. It's going to be harder to work off that fat than if you had ate earlier in the day.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

This article mentions that one of the factors is that late at night you have fewer hormones suppressing appetite so you would potentially eat more. That makes sense as a reason you would gain weight. It does say that you burn fewer calories at that time too (which might mean you convert more of it to fat at that time, and if you don’t burn those excess calories later you’re going to be stuck with it…)

But I don’t understand what you’re saying. It almost certainly takes more energy to convert calories to fat and then back to usable energy for your body to use… So what? If you eat 2000 calories, turn some of it into fat, and then burn 2000 additional calories later (in addition to the energy spent converting it to fat) you’re technically going to be burning more calories than you’re eating and you will lose weight.

I’m sure there is an effect of when you eat and how that makes you store fat and how that can unintentionally cause you to consume more calories than you think… but what you’re saying doesn’t make sense to me thermodynamically.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

It almost certainly takes more energy to convert calories to fat and then back to usable energy for your body to use… So what?

Because you think a human body wants to be "healthy" ...

It doesn't, it wants to pack on all the fat it can to survive periods where food isn't plentiful.

We didn't evolve for unlimited cheap calories, our bodies still act like we're living in caves.

Seriously, this is all very very basic stuff, you'll learn a lot more reading about this then asking questions on social media and hoping you not only get the right answer, but explained in a way that makes sense.

but what you’re saying doesn’t make sense to me thermodynamically

BECAUSE THIS IS A HELL OF A LOT MORE COMPLICATED THAN CICO

Something I've been unable to explain in a way you can understand.

I doubt bolded all caps will help, but that's literally my last hailmary.

Go read some actual scientific texts if you want to learn more.