To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed a group of 420 overweight participants who followed dietary guidelines designed to lose pounds and based on the Mediterranean diet for twenty weeks. The results of the study clearly show that "individuals who delay the main meal at noon (until after 3:00 pm) experience significantly less weight loss than those who eat early (before 3:00 pm)", as explained by Marta Garaulet, Professor of Physiology at the University of Murcia and main author of the work.
"This is the first large prospective study to show that meal timing predicts efficacy in weight loss, " adds Garaulet, who believes that future therapeutic strategies should take into account not only the consumption of calories and macronutrients, as it is classically done, but also the moment in which the food is ingested.
