Have you ever thought about whether eating at odd hours on the weekend can have any effect on our body? This mystery has been revealed by a new study from the University of Barcelona, which has concluded that the irregularity in the schedules during the weekends (eating jet lag) could be related to an increase in body mass index.
The data, published in the Nutrients magazine, were obtained independently of factors such as diet quality, physical activity level, social jet lag (the difference in sleep times over the weekend) or chronotype (the natural disposition to a certain sleep time and wakefulness). Although the BMI is not a reliable marker to know if a person is healthy or not, it has been shown that the greatest impact occurs when there is a time difference of 3 hours or more between meals weekends and other days.
Why is regularity in eating hours important?
According to the researchers, this is the first study to demonstrate the importance of regular meal times (also on weekends) for weight control. They assure that it could be an element to take into account as part of the nutritional guidelines to prevent obesity.
In recent years, it has been shown that the body assimilates calories differently depending on the time of day. For example, having a late lunch or dinner has been linked to an increased risk of obesity. According to the authors, “This difference is related to our biological clock, which temporarily organizes our body to assimilate and metabolize the calories we consume during the day.«. At night, on the other hand,prepares the body for the fast that occurs while we sleep«.
«Consequently, when ingestion takes place on a regular basis, el circadian clock ensures that the body's metabolic pathways are activated to assimilate nutrients. However, when food is eaten at an unusual time, the nutrients can act on the molecular machinery of peripheral clocks (outside the brain), altering their schedule and, therefore, modifying the metabolic functions of the organism.«.
In this study, the researchers have analyzed the relationship between the body mass index and the variability in meal times on the weekend compared to the other days. They used a new marker that encompasses changes in meal times (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) on weekends: eating jet lag, a term invented in this research.
«Our results indicate that changing the times of the three meals during the weekends is associated with obesity. The greatest impact on the BMI would occur when we have a time difference of 3 hours or more. From this point, it is when the risk of obesity could be increased«.
There is a break between the organism's schedule and the social one
To explain the relationship between eating jet lag and obesity, the researchers suggest that each weekend individuals undergo a light chronodisruption, which is a lack of synchrony between the internal time of the organism and the social one.
«Our biological clock is like a machine, and as such it is prepared to trigger the same physiological or metabolic response at the same time of day, every day of the week. Defined eating and sleeping schedules help maintain the temporal organization of the body and promote energy homeostasis. So, people who have a greater alteration of schedules would be more prone to being overweight and obese«.
«In addition to diet and exercise, which are two pillars in the treatment of obesity, factors such as regularity in meal times should also be taken into account, since we have verified that it has an impact on our body weight.«.eating jet lag