The best and WORST times of day to eat if you’re on a diet, according to expert
Eating three meals and two snacks before 7pm can help you shed pounds and lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes
BRUNCH could be the key to losing weight, experts have revealed.
They found eating late at night could be "more dangerous", than was feared.
Midnight snacking or even just eating your dinner later can cause the pounds to pile on, increase cholesterol and insulin levels and raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes and other serious health problems.
Dr Namni Goel, from the University of Pennsylvania, said: "We know from our sleep loss studies that when you're sleep deprived, it negatively affects weight and metabolism in part due to late night eating.
"But now these early findings, which control for sleep, give a more comprehensive picture of the benefits of eating earlier in the day.
"Eating later can promote a negative profile of weight, energy and hormone markers, which are implicated in diabetes and cholesterol and triglycerides, which are linked with cardiovascular problems and other health conditions."
Researchers looked at nine adults, all who were a normal, healthy weight.
They tested two situations.
Daytime eating involved eating three meals and two snacks between 8am and 7pm for eight weeks.
And delayed eating saw the volunteers eating the same three meals and two snacks from midday to 11pm, again for eight weeks.
For both daytime and delayed eating, people slept between 11pm and 9am.
The researchers took blood samples throughout, and measured weight, metabolism and energy used.
Their findings showed when people ate later they piled on pounds.
And they found raised cholesterol, insulin and triglyceride levels.
Dr Kelly Allison, and senior author on the study, added: "While lifestyle change is never easy, these findings suggest that eating earlier in the day may be worth the effort to help prevent these detrimental chronic health effects.
"We have an extensive knowledge of how overeating affects health and body weight, but now we have a better understanding of how our body processes foods at different times of the day over a long period of time."
The findings were presented at SLEEP 2017, the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.
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