The time before noon, if spent at least partially outside in sunlight, reduces the volume of the body, and no matter how actively we move and what we eat for breakfast.
If you have the opportunity to walk a little down the street before work or sit on the open veranda of a cafe, catching the gentle rays of the morning sun, then you have an excellent way to lose weight. Sunny morning is the best time to lose weight.
The time before noon, if spent at least partially outside in sunlight, reduces the volume of the body, and no matter how actively we move and what we eat for breakfast. A group of neuroscientists at the University of Chicago have studied in detail* how morning light affects our weight. Scientists have found that people whose daily routine allows you to spend time outdoors in the morning are less likely to suffer from excess weight.
Read more:
- Why do we love the sun so much
Light-catching bracelets
The authors of the study asked volunteers to wear bracelets equipped with sensors that detect light. They allow you to measure the amount of time spent by the carriers in the sunlight, and at the same time record at what time of the day the person was in the sun. In addition, the volunteers were asked in detail what they eat and how active they are in order to separate exposure to light from the effects of diet and exercise. A striking pattern was revealed: every hour spent in daylight before noon reduces body weight and vice versa, every hour in the afternoon adds kilograms to us. For example, if a woman 170 cm tall and weighing 60 kg spends an hour in the open sun not before, but after 12 noon, she can gain 3 kg.
Melatonin supply
The reasons for this relationship remain to be clarified, but it is already clear that the sleep hormone melatonin plays a major role in it. Daylight suppresses the production of melatonin, and at the end of the day, when the light is reduced, the brain re-synthesises it so that we can fall asleep easier and rejuvenate. Melatonin promotes not only healthy sleep, but also more moderate food intake and weight loss – provided that its content in the body increases by the end of the day. Thus, the daily injection of melatonin into the brain of laboratory rats during the night’s sleep reduces the weight of the animals.
Full sleep, coming at the end of the day, also seems to have a beneficial effect on the balance of calories in the body. On the contrary, evening and night vigils near artificial light sources (TV screen, computer monitor and tablet) disrupt natural rhythms and suppress evening melatonin synthesis. Today we sleep an average of 1,5 hours less than fifty years ago, and this is fraught with stress, fatigue and weight gain.
Read more:
- How to eat to lose weight: 4 main trace elements of a healthy diet
*K. J. Reid et al., Timing and Intensity of Light Correlate with Body Weight in Adults, in PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092251