Question
I was wondering whether, should you feel the need to stuff yourself with chocolates over Xmas, it would be better to eat them all at once or to eat five or so sweets everyday for as long as it takes. In other words, providing
you're not sick, whether you would be more likely to gain weight with a daily overindulgence or in one marathon chocfest. Not that I am planning to...
Answer
We put this to Linda Morgan, Professor of Nutritional Endocrinology at Surrey University
Better to eat all your chocolates all in one go or a few at a time? The short answer is that it doesn't make any difference. The extra calories will be the same in each situation. The only effective way to prevent weight gain is to not eat the extra chocolate in the first place, I'm afraid. Evolutionarily we evolved with feast and famine and we needed to build up the body fat that we should have got in feast times to see us through the famine. However, if you do eat all your chocs in one go and you felt queasy afterwards then you would probably be less likely to build up a chocolate habit that lasts well into the New Year. On the other hand if you eat a few chocs each day you may well end up with a habit that is quite hard to break in the New Year. If you have to eat chocolates have them all in one go and make yourself sick!
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