Table 2.

A summary of evidence establishing the role of chronodisruption by mistimed eating habits and associated BMI and metabolic health outcomes.

Late Night Eating, BMI and Metabolic Health
180 bariatric surgery candidates, 93 non-surgical weight-loss intervention and 158 general community candidates	Night-eating syndrome associated with binge eating, higher BMI and male gender. Night-eating syndrome, consuming nocturnal snacks leads to more hunger and depressive symptoms.	[87]
26,902 men over 16 years follow-up	Late night eaters have a 55% higher risk of CHD, are more likely to have baseline hypertension and men who did not eat breakfast have a 27% higher risk of CHD than those who ate breakfast.	[90]
8153 adults over an average of 3.9 yrs.	Night-time eating associated with dyslipidaemia in both men and women but metabolic syndrome and an increase in the risk of obesity only in women	[96]
10 participants on glucose solution at 8 am and 8 pm and 9 participants taking a low-glycaemic-index meal at 8 am, 8 pm and midnight.	Even low-glycaemic-index meals late at night disturb glucose metabolism	[86]
19,687 Japanese women	Skipping breakfast, late dinner and bedtime snack associated with overweight and obesity in Japanese women	[97]
397, 8–12 yr old children	Late dinner eaters (after 21.07 h) were more likely to be overweight and obese, with higher waist circumference and inflammatory markers	[98]
49 participants	Inconsistent meal time, especially late, eaters have significantly higher BMI	[99]
100 subjects	Correlation between night-time eating and binge eating and BMI	[88]
Later chronotype, BMI and metabolic health
2200 9–16 yr old in Australia	The later chronotype more likely to be overweight and obese	[100]
54 college freshmen	An evening chronotype associated with higher BMI as compared to morning or neutral chronotypes	[49]
511 UK 11–13 yr old children	An evening chronotype was associated with higher BMI, higher frequency of unhealthy food choices. Sleep duration is an independent risk factor for BMI	[101]
194 participants	Later chronotype and larger dinner are associated with poorer glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes independently of sleep disturbances.	[45]
439,933 adults from a UK biobank	Evening preference associated with high risk of cardiovascular disease	[46]
800 undergraduate students	Evening chronotype associated with BMI that can be negated by a decrease in sugary beverage intake, increases in physical activity	[47]
2133 prediabetic patients	More evening preference is directly associated with higher BMI	[48]
872 adults	Later chronotypes with higher percentage of daily energy intake during the night are associated with overweight and obesity while earlier chronotypes consuming more energy in the morning are at a lower risk of weight gain.	[102]
1197 middle-aged men and women	An evening chronotype associated with obesity	[50]
Circadian misalignment, BMI and metabolic health
14 healthy participants on 8-day protocol for short-term misalignment and cross over	Short-term circadian misalignment leads to increased systolic and diastolic blood pressure and serum inflammatory markers	[103]
14 adults in a 6-day simulated shift-work environment	Eating during the biological night, e.g., for shift workers, decreases total daily energy expenditure and increases the risk of weight gain and obesity	[89]
10 adults underwent a 10-day protocol with eating and sleeping in all phases	Forced desynchrony protocols cause circadian misalignment and disturb postprandial glucose response typical of prediabetes	[104]
2494 participants (1259 day and 1235 shift workers)	Shift work is associated with higher risk of being overweight/obese	[105]
26,382 participants (9088 shift workers)	Long-term shift work is associated with metabolic syndrome	[106]
9912 male employees (8892 daytime workers and 920 rotating three-shift workers	High risk of obesity among male shift workers	[107]
905 shift workers	Strong association between sleep deprivation and obesity in shift workers	[108]
200 shift workers	Night work is a risk factor for abdominal obesity, social jetlag is higher in night shift workers and it was associated with the presence of obesity.	[109]
3188 shift workers and 6395 non-shift workers	Shift work associated with obesity, lower physical activity, poor dietary choices	[110]