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.

根据一项对小鼠的新的研究，在一天中的"不正确"时间进食，可能不利于你的腰围。在通常要睡着的时候给牠们喂食的小鼠，要比在正确时间给予同样食物的小鼠增加更多的体重。

在通常进食的时间向牠们提供高脂肪食物的小鼠，过六周后重量增加 20%.然而，在牠们已经睡觉的时间里喂食同样高脂肪食物的小鼠，比较牠们开始的时候，重量竟然加添了 48%.

研究小组发现，改变喂食时间本身改变了动物的体重。在牠们的常规睡眠的时间喂食的小鼠，要比在牠们正常醒着的时候进食的小鼠增长更多的重量。

西北睡眠和生理节奏生物学中心的主任以及这项研究的资深作者弗雷德 塔瑞克说，需要进行人类的研究来查明是否食物摄取的时间会改变体重。这样的结果对于倒班的工作者，了解他们处于肥胖症、糖尿病以及其它健康问题的更高风险之中，可能是尤为重要的。但是，他强调说，这不仅仅是晚吃的倒班工作者。还有一大批人都是在傍晚时分吃进他们大部分的卡路里并且继续吃到深夜的。