If you’re interested in losing weight, it can be hard to know where to start. But before you ban all of your favorite guilty pleasures, consider this:
Recent findings from the University of California suggest that it’s not what you eat that’s sabotaging your diet, but when you eat.
To prove this, they had two identical groups of mice eat the same high-fat diet for 18 weeks. One group had access to the food 24 hours a day, while the other could only eat for 8 hours — according to when the sun was out.
They started at the same weight, but after 18 weeks of eating the same number of calories…
Not only were mice made obese from habitually eating at night, but they were also more susceptible to diabetes, inflammation of the liver, and heart disease.
So if you’ve ever wondered why late night snacks seem to sit a little bit heavier on your waistline — the time of day is a contributing factor.
If the sun has set, it’s time to store energy as fat for later use. So don’t stress about completely cutting out certain food groups — instead, next time you’re craving pizza while heading home from a late-night party, get some sleep and save the pizza for tomorrow.