By Milton Bertrand

STEM Advocate and Fellow Geazler

When it comes to weight gain and loss, an important factor that is often neglected is when one eats. It is predominantly known that what one eats, how much one consumes and often the amount of exercise has a lot to do with weight gain or loss. However, in a new research published February 27, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, it's not the number of calories that one eats rather when one eats them. Eating time will determine how well one burns these calories. The research was conducted by Kevin Kelly, Owen McGuinness, Carl Johnson and colleagues of Vanderbilt University, USA.

The daily biological clock and sleep regulate how the food one eats is metabolized; therefore, fat burning or carbohydrates changes depending on the time of day or night. The body's circadian rhythm programs the system to burn fat when one is asleep; when snacking at night or skipping breakfast such process is delayed. 

What are biological clocks?

Biological timing devices that innate to an organism. Biological clocks are composed of specific molecules (proteins) that interact in cells throughout the body. Nearly every tissue and organ have Biological clocks. Over the years, researchers have identified similar genes in people, fruit flies, mice, fungi, and several other organisms that are responsible for making the clock’s components. https://www.nigms.nih.gov/education/pages/factsheet_circadianrhythms.aspx