Trying to Lose Weight? You Probably Aren’t Doing the Most Important Thing to Get Results

Trying to Lose Weight? You Probably Aren’t Doing the Most Important Thing to Get Results

If you’re trying to lose weight, eating during the day is of paramount importance. Here’s why.

Attaining and maintaining a healthy weight can be a struggle. If you’re overweight, figuring out what diet to follow, how to change your eating habits, and how to incorporate more exercise into your day can be a difficult puzzle to master.

Let’s face it: it can turn into a multi-faceted event. And if you’re getting right in deep, you may find yourself counting calories like a mo-fo mathematician, and making chalk marks for your daily grams of fat someplace on the garage wall where no one can see the evidence but you.

Related: Can Lemon Water Help You Lose Weight?

Is it worth it, though? New research says it might all be in vain. It’s like this: what’s most important is actually the time of day you eat. (Yes, the sun is your true thigh master).

When you eat is important to weight loss.

New research from UT Southwestern Medical Center shows that when you eat has such a strong effect on your weight that it’s actually more significant than the amount of calories you consume.

Related: The Worst Healthy Snacks for Weight Loss

Circadian Rhythms and 7 Eleven

Apparently, it all comes down to the cycles in our body that respond to lightness and darkness through a 24-hour cycle.

To come to their conclusions, researchers fed mice in two groups the same calorie reduced diet. (Think: rodents on Weight Watchers). The difference was that one group ate during their normal waking hours when they would usually be up and active. These guys lost weight.

The other group, however, ate during what was naturally their resting time. Scientists used high-tech sensors and automated feeding equipment to do the job, and the results were grim. This group of mice was eating the same food as the first but they didn’t seem to lose any weight all.

It’s kind of interesting- and so is the fact that the study wasn’t actually designed to find out what it did. It was originally done to find answers as to why consuming fewer calories, (to a certain extent), can lengthen your lifespan. It’s simply a useful side track that researchers discovered that the time of day you eat can affect how you store your food and burn it off.

So, there you have it. 7 Elevens at 1 AM will now be an even lonelier place than they were last week, across the country.

Related: 5 Ways to Lose Weight From People Who Have Lost Weight

It’s a good thing for your blood sugar, waistline and heart health. It is a cultural loss, though, don’t you think? I mean, so many interesting things happen in 7 Elevens once the sun sets, and this video from way back in 1987 is proof of the party. (BTW, were the people a lot thinner and friendlier in general than we are now, or is it just me? Maybe it’s just Florida, it’s hard to say).

Anyways, drink your Slurpies for lunch and ditch the midnight doughnut run, and you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank fridge. Bon appetite.

Photo credits: Poznyakov/Bigstock; Andy Dean Photography/Bigstock

Facebook Comments