Not a fan of eating dinner? Well, this new study might just make you reconsider: researchers from Osaka University found that skipping dinner has been linked to weight gain. In short, you're doing more harm than good for your body when you ditch that nighttime meal.
The study was based on 17,573 male and 8,860 female students' health records. Participants that chose to skip dinner from time to time were found to be more overweight than the rest. And, yes, the researchers put each person's lifestyle choices (sleeping, smoking, and drinking) into consideration.
"These results suggest that skipping dinner, which was much less prevalent than skipping breakfast, has a stronger association with weight gain and overweight/obesity than skipping breakfast," the study reads.
What's causing the weight gain, though? Researchers hypothesize that it has to do with waking up hungrier, and binging food the first chance they get. The crazy findings don't even stop there. Apparently, skipping dinner might lead to more food eaten overall the next day.
Then, there's also the fact that dinner is usually full of nutritious food. No dinner means no proteins and vegetables to end the day.
"The present retrospective cohort study identified skipping dinner as a significant predictor of weight gain and overweight/obesity," the researchers concluded. "These results suggest that dinner frequency may be a critical lifestyle factor for the prevention of obesity in addition to breakfast frequency."
