Researchers at Osaka University reviewed health records from more than 26,400 students
Avoiding your nighttime meal could potentially mean extra pounds in the long run, a new study published in the peer-reviewed Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute suggests.
Multiple researchers at Osaka University observed health records from 17,573 male and 8,860 female students (age 18 and older) over the course of three years and found that study participants who regularly skipped dinner were likely to gain weight or be overweight.
Dinner skipping was found to be the main commonality among 10.8% of the male study participants who gained weight and the 17.1% of the female study participants who gained weight.
Ditching dinner was more "associated with overweight/obesity in men and women, respectively" than breakfast and lunch did, according to the study’s findings
For the male and female participants who gained weight during the study, a significant number were said to likely be older, more overweight, sleep less, drink or smoke more and skip other meals more frequently than those who ate dinner on a regular basis.
Unlike their female counterparts, the male students who gained weight were also likely eat dinner later than those who did not gain weight – or at least that was the case whenever they chose to not skip the evening meal altogether.
Researchers do not completely understand why dinner skipping appears to contribute to weight gain. Though, they have theorized the correlation between the two could be due to "an excess of energy intake" that can occur with an unregulated appetite.
In other words, skipping dinner could mean a higher hunger threshold, which could consequently cause a person to eat more than they usually would
