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There has been speculation for many years that eating at night causes weight gain. A new study done on animals has found that eating at the wrong time for your body can indeed cause significant weight gain.  Although the study only involves mice, the findings were so dramatic that it would make sense that this rings true for humans as well.

Mice sleep during the day and are considered nocturnal creatures. The best time for them to eat is at night. In the study, mice were divided into two groups-one group was given food at night and one in the day. They did not restrict the amount of food that they ate. After six weeks there was no difference in the amount of calories that each group consumed, but the mice that ate during the day (the wrong time for them to eat) had a 48% weight increase. Those that ate at night as they normally would in nature had a 20% weight increase.  It is believed that the mice who ate at the wrong time gained more weight due to a mix of internal factors such as their body temperature, metabolism, hormones and their natural sleep-wake cycle. When it comes to human studies, similar findings have surfaced. In a human based study undertaken on 94 people over three days, it was found that night eaters who ate between 11pm and 5am gained 13.6 pounds whereas those that did not eat during those hours gained only 3.7 pounds.  sleep-wake cycle," she says. For humans, the best time for us to eat is during the day. At night our body gears down to prepare us for sleep and our metabolism decreases as does our body temperature.

Although the research on this subject hasn&undefined;t been extensive, the findings in these studies point to the fact that it is best to eat in the day and restrict meals at night.  Try to eat your last meal before 8pm and if you have an early dinner and get hungry later have a snack but keep it small. Not only may you gain a few pounds if you eat too late but you also don&undefined;t get as restful of a sleep because your body is spending energy on digesting the food.