Half of the group ate lunch -- their biggest meal of the day -- before 3 p.m., while half ate later. Those who ate before 3 p.m. lost 30 percent more weight than those who dined later, the International Journal of Obesity reports.
Senior author Frank Scheer, from Brigham said: "This is the first large-scale prospective study to demonstrate that the timing of meals predicts weight-loss effectiveness. Our results indicate that late eaters displayed a slower weight-loss rate and lost significantly less weight than early eaters."
