Early dinners improve our health and help weight loss, new study finds 

A new study by Harvard Medical School researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital suggests that having an early dinner can do wonders for our health. 

The research, published in Cell Metabolism, found that the time of day we eat our meals can affect our hunger, energy levels, mood, and how our body fat is stored. 

“In this study, we asked, ‘Does the time that we eat matter when everything else is kept consistent?’” Nina Vujovic, a researcher and author of the study. 

Researchers asked 16 overweight participants to eat the same meals on different schedules. The first group was asked to have meals earlier in the day, for example at 9 a.m., 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. The second group would eat at 1 p.m., 5 p.m., and 9 p.m.

Throughout the trial period, researchers gathered blood samples and energy expenditure, took biopsies of adipose tissue, among other things, to compare the results between the two groups. At the same time, participants self-reported their hunger and appetite. 

“We wanted to test the mechanisms that may explain why late eating increases obesity risk,” explained senior author Frank Scheer, a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine and director of the Medical Chronobiology Program in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s. “Previous research by us and others had shown that late eating is associated with increased obesity risk, increased body fat, and impaired weight loss success. We wanted to understand why.”

The results of the test show that eating late at night can increase hunger, decrease energy levels, and burns calories at a slower rate, thereby increasing the risk of becoming obese. 

The results of this latest test are consistent with other studies, but this is the first time that a test shows why eating later could increase the risk of obesity. 

Researchers hope to expand the study by taking into account other variables that might not be present in a controlled setting.