Sleeping after eating makes you gain weight... myth or truth?

lilharumaki

Hello all, I am a medical student and I often eat at odd times and sleep when I can, so I was wondering if it was true if it makes you more likely to gain weight if you sleep after eating? Or is it still just about daily calorie intake? Thanks!

zebasschick

myth, total myth. calories in, calories out.

KrissDotCom

Myth. Your body is burning calories 24/7, if you are eating below maintenance it has no reason to store it as fat cause its using those calories.

janejellyroll

Myth.

Your body processes food all the time, including when you are sleeping. People who eat a lot later in the day may wake up the very next day with the food still in their system and that may reflect on the scale, but that isn't a true weight gain in the way we think of it (that is, the body isn't storing the food as energy for the future UNLESS you're also eating more than you need overall).

lilharumaki

Thank you both! In hindsight, I wish we had much more nutrition lectures in med school- in my first few years, we only had two! Two! It makes it really difficult to counsel patients so I am trying to learn all I can haha.

HeidiCooksSupper

We all wish physicians had more nutrition lectures in med school -- or even a whole course. Since that's not the case, congratulations to you for trying to learn more about it while you have so many other things pulling at you for attention! One of my favorite sources for good nutritional information is Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Source https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/. It's designed for consumers not medical professionals but it has excellent up-to-date information regularly vetted by physicians and other researchers in nutrition.

kshama2001

lilmakiroll wrote: »

Thank you both! In hindsight, I wish we had much more nutrition lectures in med school- in my first few years, we only had two! Two! It makes it really difficult to counsel patients so I am trying to learn all I can haha.

What my doctor did for me was to recognize her lack of knowledge and refer me to a dietitian

L1zardQueen

Don’t we all sleep after eating?

Jacq_qui

lilmakiroll wrote: »

Thank you both! In hindsight, I wish we had much more nutrition lectures in med school- in my first few years, we only had two! Two! It makes it really difficult to counsel patients so I am trying to learn all I can haha.

What would be really great was if they taught nutrition in schools, then half of us wouldn't need to be here

lilharumaki

kshama2001 wrote: »

lilmakiroll wrote: »

Thank you both! In hindsight, I wish we had much more nutrition lectures in med school- in my first few years, we only had two! Two! It makes it really difficult to counsel patients so I am trying to learn all I can haha.

What my doctor did for me was to recognize her lack of knowledge and refer me to a dietitian

That’s really smart!! Dietitians are great, I really hope you like yours! Another important thing in the healthcare field is working together with other professionals to give the best care for a patient!! That includes dietitians, they’re specially trained to help with these kinds of things!! I worked with a pregnancy dietitian on my obstetrics rotation and she was awesome.