You’ve likely heard recommendations from health experts surrounding the timing of meals. Whether your endocrinologist has encouraged eating breakfast within an hour of waking for healthy blood sugar balance or your dietitian has suggested giving your body ample time to digest food before you go to sleep, the topic of when we eat seems to have an impact on metabolism.

A scientific link between obesity and late eating is well established, but the exact mechanism of this association has somewhat stumped scientists. Evidently, the timing of meals may have a larger impact on metabolic health than we thought, according to a new study from Cell Metabolism.