The effects of “eating jet lag” on your body weight

The effects of “eating jet lag” on your body weight

Little did you know that by having that weekend lazy sleep in and late brunch may actually be adding kilograms to your waist.  New research from Spain suggests that delaying eating at weekends is associated with a higher risk of weight gain. The study of over 1100 people from Spain and Mexico, aged between 18-25 years assessed eating patterns over the week comparing weekend days to working weekdays.

In assessing the timing of food intake, the researchers found that on average, the highest discrepancy in meal timing between weekends and weekdays was at breakfast (on average 2.0 hrs). Terming this delayed eating as “eating jet lag”, the researchers reported a positive association between eating jet lag and body mass index (BMI). Those with higher eating jet lag had higher body weight. Interestingly, they discovered that this “eating jet lag” was less apparent at lunchtime (only delay average 38 minutes) and even less so at dinner time (average delay 15 mins). After controlling for nationality, age, gender, physical activity, diet quality, and sleep duration, the association between eating jet lag and BMI remained significant in the sample studied. The biggest association was observed in those who delayed eating by at least 3.5 hours, a threshold in which researchers report BMI significantly increases.

A limitation of this study is that findings are from self-reported dietary habits and a sample mostly in their early 20’s. Additionally, researchers did not assess the quantity of food ingested at weekends, which may be a contributing factor to findings. However, the findings are novel and suggest that our weekend eating behaviours may alter our usual internal body clocks when we deviate far from our usual weekday patterns. So if you are trying to lose those extra kgs, perhaps try to keep your weekend eating similar to your weekday eating habits and reap the potential benefits highlighted in this new study.  

Study reference:

Zeron-Rugerio MF, Hernaez A, Porras-Loaiza AP, Cambras T, Izquierdo-Pulido M: Eating Jet Lag: A Marker of the Variability in Meal Timing and Its Association with Body Mass Index. Nutrients 2019, 11(12).

The study may be accessed here