Experts recommend that your last food of the day be consumed three hours before bedtime to give your stomach time for digestion.
But a new study says that the timing of meals may not have a big impact on weight as once thought.
For the study, researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine tracked the portion sizes and eating times of 547 people, in addition to data on their health, weight, and sleep over six years.
Time-restricted eating, fasting, or intermittent fasting have been some popular strategies to lose weight in recent years. But the study showed no association between an interval of the day in which people had their meals and their weight.
The study found eating fewer, smaller meals was a more effective way to manage weight
New approaches to treat weight loss are being sought globally, as obesity rates continue to rise rapidly across the globe. While 13% of adults in the world are obese, obesity in the United States is a major health issue. About 40% of Americans are obese and it is increasing among children.
Researchers took a different approach to their study. Instead of directing the nearly 550 participants to follow a specific pattern of eating, they tracked daily mealtimes and sizes and interconnected them with weight loss patterns over six years. They found a link between eating more frequent, large meals and weight gain in their study.
