The late Dr Michael Mosley shared how changing when you eat dinner could boost weight loss results, with research showing early eaters lost an average of 15lb compared to 11lb for late dinersVita Molyneux Travel reporter, Jamie Barlow Content editor and Rebecca Miller
07:45, 30 Dec 2025
The late Dr Michael Mosley(Image: Brook Mitchell, Getty Images)
Struggling to manage your weight and maintain traditional diets?
You’re certainly not alone in this challenge.
Millions of individuals across Britain face difficulties in sustaining a healthy weight. The late Dr Michael Mosley transformed countless lives through his revolutionary approach to weight control.
Although Dr Mosley died in 2024, his expertise continues to prove invaluable for those seeking to improve their weight and overall health.
For individuals who find conventional dieting especially tough, the respected expert previously shared one straightforward technique to shed pounds almost unnoticeably.
The answer is straightforward: alter the timing of your meals. Dr Michael developed various eating plans for weight control, including The Very Fast 800, The New 5:2, and Way of Life, reports Chronicle Live.
However, there’s one simple change that anyone can adopt, which could produce extraordinary results for your physique: eating your last meal of the day much earlier.
He had previously explained how his hectic life as a working parent meant he often wouldn’t eat dinner until “well after 9pm”.
“More recently, we’ve made an effort to start eating our dinner by 7.30pm, as well as avoiding too many late-night snacks,” he previously said.
Dr Michael then explained why this strategy is “good for the waistline”. He cited research carried out by the University of Nottingham working alongside Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
Scientists recruited 82 healthy but overweight women to take part in a weight loss programme.
The principal researcher said: “The women didn’t normally finish their evening meals until well after 10pm, but now half were asked to finish their eating by 7.30pm at the latest.
“After 12 weeks both groups had lost weight, but those who changed to eating earlier in the evening had lost an average of 15lb, compared with less than 11lb for the late eaters.
“In other words, just by changing the time they ate, the early eaters had shed an extra 4lb.
“They also lost an extra inch around the waist and experienced greater improvements in their cholesterol and blood fats,” the nutrition expert added.
Dr Michael clarified this wasn’t because the late-dining group ate more calories, as both groups consumed roughly the same amounts.
Instead, he emphasised that scientists believe eating food late in the evening can disrupt the genes controlling your body clock, possibly raising the risk of developing obesity and type 2 diabetes.
In his Daily Mail column, the medical expert went on: “Further proof that late-night eating really does alter your ability to handle food comes from a recent study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the U.S.
“[It] which found that when healthy volunteers had their dinner within an hour of going to bed, they burnt 10% less fat overnight than when they stopped eating three hours before shut-eye.”
He emphasised that our bodies find it challenging to digest large quantities of food during the evening, saying that a “midnight snack will have a worse impact” compared to consuming the same meal in daylight hours.