What happens to people who skip dinner for a long time? These 6 consequences are shocking!

As the old saying goes: "Eat a good breakfast, a full lunch, and a light dinner."

But the reality is that many people start out by just snacking, then they forget to eat because they are always busy with work, and as they eat less and less, they simply skip dinner.

Is dinner really dispensable?

01

Can skipping dinner really help you lose weight?

"I didn't eat dinner, and when I weighed myself the next morning, I found that I had lost weight."

The effect of skipping a meal is so immediate that more and more urban people who have no time for fitness regard skipping dinner as a shortcut to lose weight.

But few people know that when you diet occasionally, most of the weight lost is water, which can easily rebound.

Some people may ask: If I don’t eat dinner for a long time, can I prevent rebound and achieve the goal of losing weight?

Facts have proved that skipping dinner for a long time will not make you lose weight, but will make you fat.

Japan once conducted an observational study on 17,573 male and 8,860 female college students and found that among those who skipped dinner within three years, 10.8% of men and 17.1% of women gained ≥10% weight.

The experimental conclusion shows that compared with eating dinner regularly every day, students who occasionally skip dinner or do not eat dinner have a higher probability of gaining weight.

The dotted line in the figure represents students who occasionally skip dinner, and their weight is higher than that of students who eat dinner every day. Image source: Reference [1]

Why would I gain weight if I skip dinner, even though I consume less?

The reason is that many people only pay attention to the changes in their weight numbers, but ignore the negative impact of skipping dinner on all aspects of the body.

First of all, the changes in hormone levels in the body caused by dieting will make many people crave more food. This directly leads to an increase in appetite at the next meal, and they will eat more without realizing it.

In addition, many people have a "reward mentality" that they have made efforts to lose weight, so it is easy for them to overeat during the next meal.

More importantly, if you skip dinner for a long time, your body can easily fall into the trap of “low-level basal metabolism”.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

You should know that the human body has a very complex and intelligent self-regulation and recognition system. When the body is in a state of energy deficiency for a long time, self-regulation will be activated.

On the one hand, in order to maintain physical strength, the body will increase the efficiency of absorbing calories from breakfast and lunch; on the other hand, in order to reduce energy consumption, the body will consciously lower the basal metabolic rate.

In this way, although the food intake is less, the calories consumed by the body are also reduced, and it is impossible to achieve the goal of "keeping losing weight" that many people dream of.

On the contrary, the body will seize every opportunity to convert the energy provided by food into fat and store it, which can easily make people prone to obesity.

02

Not eating dinner for a long time

Be careful of these diseases that harm your body

1. Incomplete nutritional intake

Studies have shown that tolerating hunger not only does not make you "desireless" of food, but on the contrary stimulates your craving for carbohydrates and sugar.

Although they provide a quick, short burst of energy, they lack the nutrients the body needs, such as vitamins, dietary fiber, protein, etc. provided by fruits, beans, and dairy products, which can easily lead to malnutrition in the long run.

2. Gastrointestinal dysfunction

After eating normally, our intestines and stomachs will speed up their peristalsis, promoting food digestion and absorption by increasing the secretion of gastric acid and bile.

But skipping dinner until eating the next morning means that the body will be in a fasting state for nearly 15-18 hours.

The lack of regular stimulation of digestive juices such as gastric acid and bile will induce diseases such as gastritis, gastric ulcers and even gallstones over time.

3. Digestive system irregularities

Many people underestimate the incredibly complex connection between our stomach and our brain.

If you don't eat dinner, your brain will sense hunger. This stress response will stimulate the digestive system, making the body unable to correctly predict when and how much to empty, resulting in symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea.

4. Women are more likely to suffer from proteinuria

The National University of Japan conducted follow-up monitoring on 5,439 women and 4,674 men, and the results showed that the incidence of proteinuria in women who skipped dinner for a long time reached 14.0%.

Typically, proteinuria refers to the presence of persistent foam after shaking the urine, which means there may be a problem with the kidneys.

Comparison of all the women in the study who occasionally skipped dinner (dashed line) and who ate dinner every day (solid line). Image source: Reference [5]

5. Increased mental stress

If you don't eat dinner, your body will be in a fasting state for a long time. As blood sugar drops, the body begins to release a substance specifically designed to regulate blood sugar - cortisol.

At the same time, it also produces a stress response in the body, making people feel depressed, anxious or tired, so it is also called a "stress hormone."

Korean researchers tested 4,742 elderly people aged 65 and above and found that compared with those who eat regularly, those who skip dinner have a 1.2 times higher risk of stress, a 1.38 times higher risk of depression, and a 1.46 times higher risk of suicidal thoughts.

For more young people, the most obvious feeling of not eating dinner is:

It is really difficult to sleep on an empty stomach, and even if you fall asleep, the quality of sleep is poor. This is like adding insult to injury for people who already have sleep problems.

6. Accelerates Aging

Not eating dinner for a long time will increase the secretion of adrenaline in the body, thereby promoting the production of free radicals, resulting in accelerated aging.

What is visible to the naked eye is that the skin loses its rosy luster and wrinkles increase significantly. This is probably a side effect that many people never expected.

03

How should we eat dinner?

Perhaps many people are wondering: the secret to the success of many people who lose weight is "eating less", so why can't they just eat dinner?

In fact, it is not simply about eating less or not eating, but "eating less in a healthier way" under the premise of a balanced diet.

"Eating less" does not mean simply skipping dinner. The best way is to spread your calorie intake throughout the day.

1. Pay attention to dinner time

The ideal time to eat dinner is at least 3 hours before bedtime.

Eating too late without leaving enough time for food to be digested will not only increase the workload of the stomach and intestines at night and affect sleep, but also increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

2. Pay attention to the dinner menu

It is already a cliché that you should not have too greasy dinner, avoid eating high-oil, high-salt, high-calorie and other irritating foods, and try to eat light and easy-to-digest food.

Copyright image, no permission to reprint

What and how much you should eat for dinner should be determined based on what you ate during the day.

If you lack vegetables in your breakfast and lunch, you can make up for it at dinner. According to the specific situation, you should "check for omissions and make up for deficiencies" in a timely and careful manner, so that you can have a nutritious and healthy dinner.

3. Don’t eat too much

Many people's normal eating habit is to eat a few more bites even when they are full. This habit should be eliminated at dinner.

In order not to add burden to the stomach and intestines, it is recommended to eat until you are 70% full for dinner, that is, you can stop eating when your stomach is not bloated and the feeling of hunger has disappeared.

4. Exercise after meals

"Take a hundred steps after a meal, and you will live to be ninety-nine", the old saying makes sense. But please remember not to do strenuous exercise immediately after a meal. You can choose to take a 20-minute walk, or simply wipe the table and sweep the floor, which can help promote gastrointestinal motility.

It can also lower the rising blood sugar, killing two birds with one stone.

Ultimately, pursuing weight loss and pursuing health are the same thing. There is only one benefit of skipping dinner and letting the body endure hunger, and that is saving money.

If you want to keep your body healthy, you must maintain a balanced diet and take every meal seriously.

References:

[1] Yamamoyo R, Tomi R, Shinzawa M, et al.Associations of Skipping Breakfast, lunch, and Dinner with Weight Gain and Overweight[J]. Nutrients,2021,13(1)

[2] Zhang Baohua. Does “not eating after noon” really help lose weight and maintain health? [J] Food and Health, 2022, 3:44-45.

[3] Vas Touronis - When is an Eating Disorder Related to Mental Health Problems?

[4] Lauren Wicks - 8 Scary Things That Could Happen to Your Body When You Skip Meals

[5] Tomi R, Yamamoto R, Shinzawa M, et al. Frequency ofBreakfast,Lunch,and Dinner and Incidence of ProteinuriaA Retrospective Cohort Study. Nutrients, 2020;12(11):3549.

[6] Wikipedia - Proteinuria

[7] Kwak Y, Kim Y. Association between mental health and meal patterns among elderly Koreans. Geriatr Gerontol Int. 2018,18(1):161-168.

Author: jting

Reviewer: Gao Chao, Associate Researcher, Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The cover image and the images in this article are from the copyright library

Reproduction of image content is not authorized