If you're trying to lose weight, you'll know that it can sometimes feel like an uphill battle that you just can't win, as no matter how healthy and balanced your diet is, you still can't seem to make much progress toward your goals.
But according to a calorie expert, part of the problem could actually be the way you structure your meals and the time of day that you eat, as it could be causing you to "store" calories rather than burn them off.
University of Cambridge professor and molecular geneticist Giles Yeo claimed that if you're the type of person who has a small breakfast and a big dinner, you could be ruining your diet, as your body won't have time to burn off the calories you consume at dinner time before your metabolism slows down while you sleep.
According to Professor Yeo, we should instead be having a large breakfast that will sustain us through most of the day, and then tuck into a small lunch and even smaller dinner.
This is because our metabolism is most active during the day and will work to burn more calories than in the evening when it slows down to help us conserve our energy.
Speaking to podcast host Steven Bartlett on the popular YouTube channel Diary Of A CEO, Prof Yeo said: "Our metabolism is highest during the day because we have to 'avoid becoming food' and we have to 'look for food'. Whereas at night when we're asleep, our metabolism drops.
"So if you eat your biggest meal at night and a couple of hours later you go to sleep, you are loading your calories then going to sleep - which is in storage mode. Whereas if you eat your biggest meal during the day, you have the whole day left in order to burn it."
Prof Yeo also referenced a study by Professor Alexandra Johnstone at the University of Aberdeen, where a group of people were supplied with the exact same amount of calories every day for a period of time.
He added: "And they did this either by front-loading all the calories at breakfast or back-loading all the calories at dinner - everyone ate the same thing - and then everybody swapped.
"She found that the difference was if you ate more at breakfast, you felt less hungry during the day, than if you ate more at dinner. So while if you eat exactly the same foods, at breakfast and dinner or at dinner and lunch, it doesn't actually matter. But for some people, it may very well be easier to have a big breakfast because it means they get less hungry throughout the day."
However, Prof Yeo pointed out that you should always prioritise your health and should eat "when you're hungry", as eating a big meal in the mornings may not work for you if you have a busy job with varying shift patterns.
The NHS recommends a daily intake of 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 calories for men. You can find more information on the NHS website.
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