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 Eating after the sun has gone down might trigger weight gain, say researchers who have been studying the effect in mice. 
 
 Even when given the same amount of calories overall, mice that ate around the clock put on more fat. 
 
 Fasting for at least 12 hours appears to switch on important fat burning pathways in the body. 
 
 The US team told the journal Cell Metabolism they now plan human tests to see if the same is true in man. 
 
 During the study around 400 mice were fed diets high in sugar or fat or both, or normal diets and over different time periods. 
 
 Overall, mice that were only allowed to feed for nine or 12 hours gained less weight than mice that could eat the same amount food but at any time they wanted in a 24-hour period. 
 
 Overnight fast 
 
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 Even when the restricted feed time mice were allowed a blow out at weekends and could eat when they liked, they still gained less weight, suggesting that the diet can withstand some temporary interruptions, the researchers said. 
 
 And when obese mice who had been eating freely were moved to a restricted schedule they lost 5% of their body weight even though they were eating the same number of calories as before. 
 
 The researchers believe a key to controlling weight gain could be sticking to a consistent 12-hour fast every 24 hours. 
 
 In the experiments, fasting at night had beneficial effects on blood sugar and cholesterol and reversed the effects of diabetes in the mice. 
 
 Study leader Dr Satchidananda Panda, an associate professor at the Salk Institute in California, said that brown fat, which burns energy at a much higher rate is also activated by this approach. 
 
 Additional work in mice by another team showed that limiting eating to half the day also altered the balance of microbes in the gut, which experts say might be important. 
 
 Dr Perry Barrett, a senior research fellow at the University of Aberdeen who does research on regulation of appetite said: "The revelation that there is a circadian rhythm in gut microbes now adds another dimension to this very interesting area of research." 
 
 He said there had not been many human studies in this fairly new area of 'chrono-nutrition' but those that had been done had so far concentrated on sleep cycles. ||||| New research in mice suggests that restricting access to food to 8-12 hours rather than allowing constant access to food may help prevent and even reverse obesity and type 2 diabetes. The results of two studies publishing online December 2 in the Cell Press journal Cell Metabolism suggest that this time-restricted eating affects the balance of bacteria found in the gut. Researchers also found the occasional "cheat days" on weekends did not undo the benefits of time-restricted eating in mice. 
 
 Previously, investigators led by Dr. Satchidananda Panda of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California found that such time-restricted feeding may help prevent obesity caused by high-fat diets, but they didn't test its effects in the face of other nutritional challenges or pre-existing obesity. 
 
 In their new studies, the researchers tested time-restricted feeding in mice under diverse nutritional challenges. In mice fed a variety of high-fat and high-sugar foods, the strategy could help prevent the development of metabolic problems, and the benefits were proportional to the duration of fasting in the animals. Interestingly, the protective effects were maintained even when the mice were given "cheat days," when time-restricted feeding was temporarily interrupted by allowing the mice free access to food during the weekends, a protocol that would seem particularly relevant to humans. Finally, time-restricted feeding halted or reversed the progression of metabolic diseases in mice with pre-existing obesity and type 2 diabetes. 
 
 "We found that animals fed within a window of 8 to 12 hours had a number of protective and therapeutic health benefits compared with animals allowed to eat the same number of calories from the same food source at any time," says Dr. Panda. 
 
 In a second study, the scientists looked at the effects of different eating patterns on bacteria that reside in the gut. These bacteria, which make up what's known as the gut microbiome, are known to affect the body's metabolic processes. Dr. Panda and his team found that the gut microbiome is highly dynamic, exhibiting daily cyclical fluctuations in the proportions of different bacteria. Diet-induced obesity perturbed many of these cyclical body clock bacteria fluctuations, which were, however, partially restored by time-restricted feeding. 
 
 "The effect of eating time to nudge the gut microbiome and host physiology towards health or disease without altering genes, nutrients, calories, or drugs opens new research avenues and cost-effective health-care strategies," says Dr. Panda. "For biologists, this offers a novel paradigm to understand the etiology of metabolic diseases and undesirable gut microbiomes in modern lifestyles marked with erratic eating patterns." For public health and patient care, the results will prompt new studies to test if a change in eating patterns is a cost-effective first step towards prevention and treatment of obesity-related metabolic diseases. 
 
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 Cell Metabolism, Chaix et al.: "Time-Restricted Feeding Is a Preventative and Therapeutic Intervention against Diverse Nutritional Challenges" 
 
 Cell Metabolism, Zarrinpar et al.: "Diet and Feeding Pattern Determine the Diurnal Dynamics of the Gut Microbiome" ||||| If you’re going to chow down on that box of cookies, you’re better off doing it during your usual daytime hours, rather than during the wee hours of the night, suggests new research on mice. 
 
 The study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism adds to growing evidence that when it comes to controlling your weight, WHEN you eat can be as important as WHAT you eat. In other words, restricting your eating to 9-12-hour windows, as people more commonly did a century or so ago (before the era of TV, tablets, and bingewatching on Netflix), can stave off high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. 
 
 For their study, researchers at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. subjected nearly 400 mice, ranging from normal to obese, to an array of diets and time restrictions. They found that regardless of the original weight of the mice and what kind of food the mice ate and how many calories they ate, those who could only eat during a 9-12-hour period gained less weight than mice who could eat at any time. 
 
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 In other words, binging during the day led to less weight gain than binging on the same amount of calories during usual sleeping hours. 
 
 When mice were placed on a 15-hour restricted eating period they still gained less weight than those on unrestricted eating times, but the benefits were more modest. 
 
 The researchers also investigated what effect that taking a break in the restricted diet routine — say for the weekend — had on the health of the mice. The good news is they saw little ill effect. The mice that were freely fed just on weekends looked much the same as mice given access to food 9 or 12 hours a day for seven days a week. 
 
 “The fact that it worked no matter what the diet, and the fact that it worked over the weekend and weekdays, was a very nice surprise,” said the study’s first author Amandine Chaix, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Satchidananda Panda, a Salk associate professor, who oversaw the study. 
 
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 Another promising result showed that reversing unrestricted eating habits can also reverse body weight. Mice that had gained weight after being able to eat any time were then restricted to a nine-hour eating window. They ate the same amount of calories as before, but they all dropped 5 percent of their body weight within a few days and stopped gaining weight. 
 
 If the mouse models prove accurate for people, then even those who have trouble improving their diets can at least improve their health by restricting when they indulge in those holiday treats. 
 
 Photo: ThinkStock ||||| Dieters hoping to shed the pounds should watch the clock as much as their calories after scientists discovered that limiting the hours we eat stops weight gain. 
 
 Confining meals to a 12 hour window, such as 8am to 8pm, and fasting for the remaining day, appears to make a huge difference to whether fat is stored, or burned up by the body. 
 
 Researchers at The Salk Institute in the US, said it adds more evidence to studies which show that eating late at night causes weight gain. 
 
 They suggest restricting eating hours could help fight high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. 
 
 "These days, most of the advice is, 'You have to change nutrition, you have to eat a healthy diet,'" said associate professor Satchidananda Panda 
 
 "But many people don't have access to healthy diets. So the question is, without access to a healthy diet, can they still practice time-restricted feeding and reap some benefit?" 
 
 The researchers studied 400 mice, ranging from normal to obese who were placed on various types of diets and lengths of time restrictions. 
 
 They showed that mice which were fed a high-fat diet, but allowed access to food for only 12 hours per day, were healthier and slimmer than mice given access to the same food for the whole day, even though the two groups consumed the same number of calories. 
 
 The results were the same even if the diets were high fat, high sugar, or high fruit sugars. 
 
 The study also suggests that the odd blip is unlikely to make a difference. A late night weekend takeaway, for example, is unlikely to harm the body's metabolism. However regularly eating at night would have a big impact. 
 
 "The fact that it worked no matter what the diet, and the fact that it worked over the weekend and weekdays, was a very nice surprise," says the study's first author Amandine Chaix, a postdoctoral researcher in Prof Panda's lab. 
 
 Mice who had become obese by eating whenever they liked during the day, lost five per cent of their bodyweight, when put on restricted within just a few days. At the end 38 week study, they were 25 per cent lighter than the group who had continued to eat freely. 
 
 Although mice on a healthy diet did not lose more weight, they gained muscle mass, the study which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism showed. 
 
 "It's an interesting observation that although the mice on a normal diet did not lose weight, they changed their body composition," added Prof Panda. 
 
 "That brings up the question--what happens? Are these mice maintaining their muscle mass which might have been lost with free feeding, or are they gaining muscle mass?" 
 
 A second study found that sticking to a Mediterranean diet can protect the DNA from ageing. 
 
 Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in the US found that a diet high in olive oil, fresh fruit and vegetables and nuts, was associated with longer telomeres. 
 
 Telomeres are the protective caps which sit at the end of chromosomes and prevent damage to the DNA, much like the plastic caps on the end of shoelaces. 
 
 Previous studies have shown that short telomeres are associated with disease and advanced ageing. 
 
 "To our knowledge this is the largest population-based study specifically addressing the association between Mediterranean diet adherence and telomere length in healthy, middle-aged women," explained Immaculata De Vivo, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at BWH and Harvard School of Public Health and senior author of this study. 
 
 "Our results further support the benefits of adherence to this diet to promote health and longevity." 
 
 Dr Mike Knapton, Associate Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This large study adds to the body of evidence that longer telomeres are found in those who eat a Mediterranean diet. 
 
 “Longer telomeres may partially explain the link between diet and risk of cardiovascular disease. 
 
 “Previous findings from the same study had shown that those with unhealthy lifestyles had shorter telomeres. 
 
 “These results reinforce our advice that eating a balanced and healthy diet can reduce your risk of developing heart disease.” 
 
 The study was published in the British Medical Journal.
– Instead of counting calories next time you want to lose weight, try keeping an eye on the clock. US researchers at the Salk Institute have found that restricting eating to an 8-to-12-hour window each day can help the body burn fat instead of storing it, the Telegraph reports. Mice whose eating was restricted "had a number of protective and therapeutic health benefits compared with animals allowed to eat the same number of calories from the same food source at any time," says the lead researcher in a press release. Mice who only had access to food for up to 12 hours per day gained less weight than mice who could eat whenever they wanted—regardless of the number of calories consumed or whether the diet was high in fat or sugar. And mice that gained weight by eating on an unrestricted schedule were able to reverse the effect by restricting eating to a nine-hour window: Even if they ate the same number of calories as before, they stopped gaining weight and dropped 5% of their body weight in days, Discovery News reports; by the end of the 38-week study, they weighed 25% less than mice who kept eating on an unrestricted schedule. Researchers also found that brief breaks in the routine (a "cheat day," perhaps, or a weekend during which you don't restrict your eating times) had little negative effect. And in addition to preventing obesity, the overnight fasting for 12 hours or more also had positive effects on blood sugar and cholesterol, as well as reversing the effects of diabetes, the BBC reports. (Another reason to skip that midnight snack: Late-night eating can hurt your memory.)