3.23pm - the time when we are most likely to give up dieting

London, Mar 22 (ANI): 3.23pm is the time when dieters are most likely to give in to temptation and reach for a sweet treat, according to experts.

It was previously believed that elevenses or a crafty midnight snack spelled doom for the weight watcher.

But experts now believe that mid-afternoon is the most dangerous time of the day. And they worked out the exact time we are most vulnerable.

Researchers for the Atkins Diet blame stress at work or boredom while some may suffer a dip in energy.

They questioned 1,250 slimmers to work out why they failed to stick to their diets. They discovered that most - 62 per cent - broke their diets mid-afternoon, compared with 16 per cent in the morning and 22 per cent late at night.

More than half - 56 per cent - blamed stress, 26 per cent boredom at work and eight per cent said colleagues taking treats into the office made them give up their good intentions.

"One of the things we were keen to establish was a pattern of failure and so we asked people if they could recall the time of day when they had previously ditched their diet. We soon discovered that mid-afternoon, more specifically between 3pm and 3.30pm, was the most precarious time for the majority of slimmers," the Daily Express quoted Atkins nutritionist Linda O'Byrne as saying.

"We were then able to work out, via our responses, the mean time of failure and it came up as precisely 3.23pm.

"This is the time when most dieters are susceptible to failure because of a number of different factors, namely a dip in energy mid-afternoon and the use of food as an emotional crutch.

"This could be down to either stress, boredom or the many other ranges of emotion that we go through on any given day. So as well as advising -people to watch their sugar and carbs intake, we also advise them to watch their clock. Being aware of the time of day when you are most susceptible to diet failure can go a long way to helping you stay on track," O'Byrne added. (ANI)