According to a new study done on mice, eating at the 'wrong' time of day may be bad for your waistline The mice that were fed when they would normally be asleep put on more weight than others given the same meals at the right time.

    The mice that were given a high-fat diet during the time they would typically eat gained 20 percent in weight over six weeks. However, mice fed the same high-fat diet during hours they should have been sleeping packed on 48 percent compared to the weight they started with.

    The research team discovered that altering the feeding time, by itself, changed the animal's body weight. Mice fed during their regular sleeping hours gained more weight than mice that ate during their normal awake hours.

    Fred Turek, director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern and the study's senior author, said human studies are required to find out if timing of food consumption changes body weight. The results would be especially significant for shift workers, who are known to be at elevated risk for obesity, diabetes as well as other health problems. However, he notes that it is not just shift workers who are eating late. A large number people eat a big portion of their calories in the evening and continue eating late into the night.

    根據一項對小鼠的新的研究，在一天中的"不正確"時間進食，可能不利于你的腰圍。在通常要睡著的時候給牠們喂食的小鼠，要比在正確時間給予同樣食物的小鼠增加更多的體重。

    在通常進食的時間向牠們提供高脂肪食物的小鼠，過六周后重量增加 20%.然而，在牠們已經睡覺的時間里喂食同樣高脂肪食物的小鼠，比較牠們開始的時候，重量竟然加添了 48%.

    研究小組發現，改變喂食時間本身改變了動物的體重。在牠們的常規睡眠的時間喂食的小鼠，要比在牠們正常醒著的時候進食的小鼠增長更多的重量。

    西北睡眠和生理節奏生物學中心的主任以及這項研究的資深作者弗雷德 塔瑞克說，需要進行人類的研究來查明是否食物攝取的時間會改變體重。這樣的結果對于倒班的工作者，了解他們處于肥胖癥、糖尿病以及其它健康問題的更高風險之中，可能是尤為重要的。但是，他強調說，這不僅僅是晚吃的倒班工作者。還有一大批人都是在傍晚時分吃進他們大部分的卡路里并且繼續吃到深夜的。