They key to losing weight may be as simple as eating a later breakfast and an earlier dinner, a new study suggests.

Participants in a trial who delayed their first meal of the day by 90 minutes and brought forward the last meal by 90 minutes lost more than twice the amount of body fat after 10 weeks compared to a control group, despite not cutting down on the amount of food they consumed.

Scientists say the study of 13 people, which appears to confirm the results of similar experiments in animals, could offer a new option to those trying to lose weight without reducing their calorie intake.

People undertaking traditional diets, which are based on cutting back on overall food amount, offer suffer from a “rebound” effect whereby they end up eating more than they would normally have done.

Dr Jonathan Johnson, who led the research at the University of Surrey, said: “This is very encouraging. People can still, to some degree, eat the food that they would like but if they simply change the time at which they eat then that can have a long-term benefit.

He added: “I would never say it’s a magic bullet, but it could be an important piece of the jigsaw.”