Is Skipping Dinner Bad for You? Here's What Researchers Say

Different diet trends are taking over the online world and promise to enhance and make someone lose weight. Add the factor of famous people trying them, then definitely more dieters will try them. One of the simplest ones is not eating the last meal of the day. However, researchers from Japan discover this one disadvantage of skipping dinner that may stop you from cutting this meal out as it may affect your weight.

Diets like after six or cutting it off the meal are believed to aid the weight loss. It somehow resembles intermittent fasting, which is famous for its weight-loss promises. This recent Japanese study may clear that up as it debunks the weight loss idea of skipping dinner has.

Side Effects of Skipping Dinner

Eat This Not That references a Japanese research suggesting that skipping dinner gives an individual a higher risk of gaining weight after looking at the data from 25,000 university students. It adds that "skipping the last meal of the day is the biggest predictor of weight gain" and a factor in the development of obesity.

However, Yahoo! Life reports that the researchers also note that skipping breakfast or lunch did not show that activity, adding that both men and women had at least 10 percent weight gain when they skip dinner.

In an interview with the Eat This Not That, the study co-author and professor from in Health Counseling Center from Osaka University, Toshiki Moriyama Ph.D., shares that many studied have shown a connection between the low eating frequency that means skipping meals and becoming overweight. He adds that the link is widely researched for breakfast. However, it is not the case for lunch and dinner.

Because of this connection, the researchers discuss in the journal Nutrients that they conducted a cohort study design with an observation period of three years. They suggest that skipping dinner, which is less practiced by people than skipping breakfast, has a stronger association with weight gain and being overweight that might progress into obesity when not controlled.

Moriyama adds that one possible reason was when an individual skipped dinner, they may increase the calories the next day.

Meanwhile, the National Health Service (NHS) emphasizes that skipping meals is not a good idea because it can cause tiredness and miss out on some of the vital and essential nutrients for the body. It adds that an individual must reduce the number of calories they consume and increase the calories when they work out to lose weight.

Is Skipping Dinner Bad?

Eat This Not That shares that, in general, the best approach when you want to avoid gaining weight is to spread the calories you consume throughout the day and try to stop starving yourself.

Gaining weight is the disadvantage of skipping dinner, and if you are on a diet, you might consider giving up the practice of ditching it. Instead, it is better to eat in small portions to keep being satiated and avoid doubling the calories once you eat the next day.