By: Jean Johnson for Reflux1Nighttime eating does not pack on the pounds any more than calories consumed throughout the day. While this idea may not seem like news to many cosmopolitan Europeans and South Americans who regularly enjoy late-night meals, it counters the diet preaching of a range of high-profile weight-loss groups in the United States.
| Take Action |
To increase activity, consider the labor-saving devices in your environment. The Thompson family of Portland, Oregon says they’re willing to give it a try:
“I’m going to figure how out to open my garage door manually again,” said Bud Thompson, a racecar mechanic. “Ever since we put it in, I’ve worried about what would happen if the power went off. So this is a great excuse. I’ll find my manual and the key and get things figured out. Then I can open and close it manually most of the time, and just save the auto-pilot for when I’m in a hurry or the weather’s bad.”
And Thompson’s wife, Betty who works as a bookkeeper, said, “What I notice is that I’m a total remote control nut. As we speak, I’m taking them over to the entertainment center so that when I want to change a channel or adjust the volume, I can just get up out of my chair. After all, that’s how it used to be before we got all this high-tech stuff.”
The Thompson’s eighth-grader, Kim, takes it a step further. “I’m sticking with my flute lessons so I can make music instead of sitting around getting entertained all the time. Like Mom, I guess I wish things were more like they used to be when people made their own fun and weren’t such sitcom zombies.”
|
But research on 47 female rhesus monkeys showed no correlation between weight gain and nighttime eating. In a paper published in the December 2005 issue of Obesity Research, a team of scientists at Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland wrote that while it seems to make sense that night eating during times when the body’s metabolic rate is slowed could lead to weight gain, “data from the studies do not support this conclusion.”“We’ve all been told at one point in our lives that we should avoid eating meals late at night as it will lead to weight gain,” said Judy Cameron, Ph.D., senior scientist in the Divisions of Reproductive Sciences and Neuroscience at the OHSU Oregon National Primate Research Center, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.
“However, our research in rhesus monkeys, which are considered an excellent model for studying primate (which includes man and monkey) obesity issues, showed that eating at night is no more likely to promote weight gain than eating during the day,” Cameron added with a cautionary statement. “Of course this research does not suggest that snacking at night after eating your normal daily ration of calories is a good idea.”
What about breakfast and metabolism?
“This particular study can’t speak to metabolism,” said Cameron. “Rather it says that the number of calories you take in matters no matter when you take them in.”
That said, Cameron explained that “any time you eat your metabolism increases a teeny little bit in order to metabolize the food. If you eat breakfast in the morning, that process will get started in the morning. But there are lots of other things that will increase the metabolic rate too, like being active.”
The Sacred Cow: Activity
In the conclusion of the Obesity Research paper, study authors write: “These results suggest that individuals trying to lose weight should not rely on decreasing evening calorie intake as a primary weight loss strategy but should focus on other strategies such as decreasing overall caloric intake and increasing activity level.”
Particularly on the latter point, Cameron had some interesting things to say to Reflux1. “We have done a lot of work on metabolism and activity, and the best predictor of adult weight gain is how active you are. The best predictor.”
Cameron explains that in monkeys there is an eight-fold difference in activity between active and sedentary animals. “That is a very large difference,” she said. “When we talk about most physiological measurements, we’re figuring maybe a 20 to 30 percent difference, well below even a two-fold difference. So an eight-fold difference is a very big number. It overrides everything else about weight control.”
Rethinking what it means to be in motion
We have become creatures of cars and remote controls and computers, not to mention garage door openers.
Therein lays the problem. Only our fingers are doing the work.
More, Cameron says that we are fooling ourselves if we think 30 minutes on the treadmill or one exercise class can compensate for a whole day and evening spent on our bums, as the Brits put it.
“People have this notion that going out and running for a half hour is what they ought to be doing, and we’re starting to really question that. The monkey data from this study suggests that a better strategy would be to stay active all day.”
Cameron offers the usual tips about parking the car as far away from the door as you can, taking the stairs, walking instead of sitting while talking on the phone.
“When I see people in parking lots driving around looking for the closest spot to the door, I think, ‘this is silly, you’re doing yourself a disservice.’”
She also suggests that instead of picking up the phone and calling someone in the next office that people walk over and talk in person. Anything for people to get more movement into their lives. When asked about the extra time burden these approaches will put on modern multi-taskers, her reply is no-nonsense – and reasonable:
“Sometimes we are very limited on time, but we have to give our health a high priority. I’m a big believer in moderation, so I’m not suggesting you walk a very long ways and take that much time out of your work day,” she said. “But I am suggesting that you take a little more time since being healthy matters a lot.”
So far, Cameron and her colleagues are just hypothesizing on the idea that being active throughout the day is more beneficial than a single intense spurt of exercise. “We are just starting to study that,” she said. “But since there is an eight-fold difference between active monkeys and sedentary ones, squeezing that into a half-hour period is unlikely. In order to really be more active, we need to have a larger portion of the day involved, we think. And that’s what requires experimental testing.”
Cameron brings another issue to the idea of getting more motion into the entire day; activity increases the metabolism. So Cameron’s hypothesis is that if we are active throughout the day – even in seemingly small inconsequential amounts – we will be giving our metabolisms a badly-needed boost that could translate to weight loss. “Again, this requires experimental testing,” she underscored. “But we do know that activity increases your metabolic rate, and if we are only active for a half hour, that’s all the benefit we get.”
What the researcher wants to explore now is what type of metabolic benefits activity that is interspersed throughout the day causes. Until the studies that Cameron hopes to complete are run, though, she thinks going for interspersed activity would be a prudent move.
“Taking the stairs and shunning the elevator all together. Do something active at lunch, for example. Try tennis instead of TV. Do it for exercise, but also for fun and relaxation.” Cameron recommends wearing an accelerometer or pedometer to encourage increasing activity. “I gave them to my nieces and nephews for Christmas, and they said, ‘these are cool.’”
