The Word on Weightloss

Are you afraid of the dark? If you’re trying to lose weight, you shouldn’t be. A recently published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that light exposure while sleeping may inhibit your weight loss efforts.

Conducted by doctoral students at Ohio State University*, the eight week long weight loss experiment involved three groups of mice, each of which was exposed to various amounts of light. Group A was exposed to standard circadian light conditions, like those we experience daily, while groups B and C were exposed to 24 hours of continuous and placed under minimal cycles of dim light, respectively.

The researchers discovered that the mice exposed to 24 hours of continuous light gained weight faster than the mice that lived in standard light conditions, despite having equal amounts of exercise and food. Even the mice exposed to minimal amounts of light gained roughly 4 grams of body mass compared to those in normal light conditions.

Laura Fonken, the lead researcher, credits the weight gain to a change in eating habits. Normally nocturnal, mice eat at night and sleep during the day. The light changed those conditions causing the mice to eat when they would normally be asleep. Not surprisingly, when they put the mice on a diet plan that included eating at normal times, there was no weight gain.

So, what does this mean for your weight loss plan? Well, besides confirming that indulging in those late night snacks aren’t ideal when trying to lose weight, it shows just how important it is to eat at the right time. Weight loss isn’t simply about exercising or being active. Dieting (particularly when you eat) plays an even greater role.

The weight loss findings also validate the long-held belief that stimuli, like computers and television, change our normal eating habits, leading to additional calorie consumption making weight loss much more difficult.

Choosing the best weight loss plan to get to drop pounds and get to your goal weight means exercising, dieting, maintaining a normal eating pattern, and turning off that television!

*Study Conducted by: Fonken, L.K., Workman, J.L., Walton, J.C., Morris, J.S., Haim, A., & Nelson, R.J. (2010). Light at night increases body mass by shifting the time of food intake. (In press, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,  abstract of study available here)