Geschatte leestijd: 2 minutenStandardly, we teach people that breakfast is the most important meal. Especially getting your energy in the morning so that you have the rest of the day to use it up. Especially carbohydrates are often avoided in the late hours because due to inactivity during sleep, they would just be stored as body fat. However, research from 2011 indicates the opposite.
“Eating Carbohydrates in the Evening”
The research from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows something remarkable. The setup of the study was to follow a group of police officers for six months. They divided them into an experimental group that ate a lot of carbohydrates in the evening and a control group that spread the carbohydrates evenly throughout the day.
They received similar compositions of food, so the only difference and what was tested was the timing of the food and the fact that in one case the carbohydrates were consumed throughout the day, and in the other case in one meal. In both cases, it was a diet with a reduced number of calories.
The conclusion of the researchers: as you can see in the table, the police officers who ate carbohydrates in the evening hours lost more fat, percentage-wise. It was also noted that the officers from the experimental group had less hunger during the day and their glucose and insulin levels were more stable.
A simple dietary manipulation of carbohydrate distribution appears to have additional benefits when compared to a conventional weight loss diet in individuals suffering from obesity.
S. Sofer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The researchers mainly attribute the cause to the changed hormonal balance during sleep. Hormones such as adiponectin, which plays a role in fat burning, and leptin, which affects your hunger feeling.
What we do want to note is that this study was not very large; it was done with ultimately 78 police officers who adhered to the diet (according to their own statements), so you cannot definitively state that this effect was indeed so significant and not based on chance. Also, very remarkable were the comparable leptin levels of the two groups, which raises questions about the role of leptin in body fat percentage and weight.
Our Opinion
For us, this is a great study to show that the claim that eating carbohydrates before bedtime leads to increased fat storage is no longer a sacred cow. Especially when more research is done on it and these results are repeated. That is also the conclusion of the researchers. They do not strongly assert that you should eat your carbohydrates before bedtime, but they do suggest that the “old wisdom” about this needs to be reconsidered.
And that’s exactly what we will do in our modest way. In an extensive article, we will soon delve into the influence of sleep on fat burning. What happens, for example, to the mentioned hormones, and what happens to your metabolism during sleep?
References
- Sofer S, Eliraz A, Kaplan S, Voet H, Fink G, Kima T, Madar Z. Greater weight loss and hormonal changes after 6 months diet with carbohydrates eaten mostly at dinner. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Oct;19(10):2006-14. doi
