Don’t eat after sunset! Study shows serious health consequences of eating after 5pm

Doctors have long advised people trying to lose weight to stop eating after the sun goes down, and according to a report, researchers have pointed to another major benefit of this piece of advice for metabolic health.

A study reveals that eating at least 45 percent of daily calories after 5pm hinders the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar levels, a UK paper reports.

Eating later at night can drastically increase the risk of developing diabetes, it warned.

The Daily Mail cited the study as saying that late eating decreased leptin, the hormone that signals fullness and influences appetite-regulating hormones, making people feel hungrier over time.

These changes could potentially influence the risk of developing obesity, which is a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

The study, published in Nutrition and Diabetes, included 26 people 50 to 75 years old. People were divided into two groups: early eaters and late eaters. They ate the same foods and the same amount of calories, just at different times of the day.

Those who ate more after 5 pm, the later eaters, had higher glucose levels after a glucose test, suggesting poorer glucose tolerance.

Intermittent fasting, meanwhile, has been shown to significantly improve the body’s ability to effectively use glucose from food and utilize insulin to manage blood sugar levels, in part because it encourages people to end their eating for the day relatively early, around 5 pm.

By limiting the eating window and extending the amount of time without food, the body can better process glucose more efficiently.

Researchers added food typically eaten late at night is more calorie-dense and often processed, ‘which may explain why late eating is associated with greater body weight and fat mass.’

A doctor said personal decisions in nutrition have been based on two main questions: how much we eat, and what foods to choose. “With this study, a new factor in cardiometabolic health is beginning to become increasingly important: when we eat,” he added.

In addition to typically eating unhealthy foods at night, late eaters have been shown to burn calories at a slower rate. Their bodies also showed signs of encouraging fat storage and reducing fat breakdown, which can lead to increased fat growth, according to the study.