Late Night Snacking 'Influences Weight Gain'

The time of day a person eats as well as the amount a person eats can impact weight gain, new research has showed.

A study by scientists at the Northwestern University in Chicago, which has been published online in the journal Obesity, showed that eating at irregular times and snacking can increase waistlines.

The research compared the weight gain of a group of mice which ate during sleeping hours with another group consuming similar food in waking hours.

Those who ate at erratic times put on more than twice as much weight as their more sensible counterparts, the study revealed.

Fred Turek, professor of neurobiology and physiology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, said: "How or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it clearly is not just calories in and calories out."

He added that better-timing of meals could slow the increase in obesity rates in the US.

Figures cited by the researchers showed that more than 300 million adults across the world are obese, with a third of this figure being from the US.