Skipping dinner may lead to weight gain in young adults, claims study

One of the dietary risk factors for overweight/obesity is meal frequency . Multiple observational studies have reported that low eating frequency is associated with overweight/obesity . Among breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the association between breakfast frequency and overweight/obesity has been the most extensively studied. Although multiple studies have identified skipping breakfast as a risk factor for weight gain, there is limited evidence on the clinical impact of skipping lunch and dinner on weight gain.

With this in mind, a team of researchers undertiik a study to assess the clinical impact of skipping breakfast, lunch, and dinner on weight gain and overweight/obesity in 26,433 university students within their 6-year college life.

Over 30,144 university students enrolled at Osaka University, one of the largest national universities in Japan, between 2007 and 2015 who underwent baseline health checkup on admission at the Osaka University Healthcare Center in April or October were eligible for inclusion in this retrospective cohort study.

Data analysis revealed the following facts.

• Within the observation period of 3.0 ± 0.9 years, the incidence of ≥10% weight gain was observed in 1896 (10.8%) men and 1518 (17.1%) women, respectively.
• Skipping dinner was identified as a significant predictor of weight gain in multivariable-adjusted Poisson regression models for both men and women (skipping ≥ occasionally vs. eating every day, adjusted incidence rate ratios, 1.42 (95% confidence interval: 1.02–1.98) and 1.67 (1.33–2.09) in male and female students, respectively), whereas skipping breakfast and lunch were not.
• Similarly, skipping dinner, not breakfast or lunch, was associated with overweight/obesity (1.74 (1.07–2.84) and 1.68 (1.02–2.78) in men and women, respectively).

Focusing on the results, the team concluded that "One of the plausible mechanisms for the association between skipping dinner and weight gain may be an excess of energy intake due to upregulation of appetite after skipping dinner, leading to high total energy intake. Another potential candidate for a link between skipping dinner and weight gain may be low diet quality. The present retrospective cohort study identified skipping dinner as a significant predictor of weight gain and overweight/obesity. These results suggest that dinner frequency may be a critical lifestyle factor for the prevention of obesity in addition to breakfast frequency. However, the clinical impact of dinner frequency should be clarified in further studies."

For full article follow the link: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13010271

Primary source:Nutrients