Does eating at night make you fat?

paleojoe

Yes, again me

I'm a college student. So far, I had a steady life, but now I have a part-time job. I feel too tired & sleepy in the evenings while dieting. What happens if I eat 500 calories all morning and 1000 calories at night?

As long as you are at a deficit, nothing.

gigglesinthesun

I used to eat similar to you and it was fine (I was much lighter then now), but then something changed and instead of eating a 'normal' sized meal at night I would just binge (on healthy foods, but nonetheless 3-4 portions) without self control (hence the 6kg weight gain within 2-3 months). The only way for me to control those cravings was eating a reasonable filling breakfast with both carbs and protein, and have a reasonable sized lunch. In fact when I started here I just lived on salads and every 3 days, I would just get so hungry that regardless of what I ate I couldn't get full. Maybe as I get older my blood sugar needs more regular meals.

Good luck :-)

theredfro

Gaining weight comes from eating more calories than you burn, so basically no. Eating at night doesn't make you fat.

Unknown

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Lyadeia

Im going to have to say from experience, eating late at night does affect your weight loss. Try to eat most of your calories in the first half of your day.

And I am going to have to 100% whole heartedly disagree with your comment.

Some myths just won't die...

jeffpettis

Yes...

And so does eating at any other time if you eat too much...

JenAndSome

Yes...

And so does eating at any other time if you eat too much...

QFT

Elliesque

A calorie surplus = weight gain.
A calorie deficit = weight loss.
Meal timing is personal preference.

This.

I eat mostly at night and I've been steadily losing eating at a deficit.

hayleyrue

I work 530pm to 630am , go to the gym at 0645am right after work, and then go to bed right after that... so my eating schedule and my workout routine is not always consistant. especially on days I dont work). I log from when I wake up to when I go to sleep. Those are my days. There are times when I'm eating dinner at 2am, and I havent seemed to have any problems. I dont think that it matters as long as you are within your goals, and youre not going long periods without food and then overeating at times.

nogoldilocs

However. It can lead to messing around with your metabolism and is more difficult for your digestive system to properly digest something carb loaded and heavy late at night.

Um, no. My stomach has no idea what time it is when I am digesting whatever I have eaten at whatever time I have eaten it.

RubyRunner14

Nope... most of my intake is after 7PM and my entire life dinner has been around 7:30 or 8 Pm. I just caution not eating directly before bed if you toss and turn as it tends to upset the intestines (at least for me).

theredfro

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman.html

JoJo__Fit

Nope as long as your in your caloric range and or macros

ednameyer

Eating a piece of cake during the day is no better than eating it at night. It's still a piece of cake, it's still not good for you. (not that one piece of cake is going to destroy all progress) Eating an apple at night, or eating an apple during the day, it doesn't matter. Your body will absorb the vitamins either way. It's all about picking and choosing the healthier choices, and staying within your calorie range.

Athijade

Im going to have to say from experience, eating late at night does affect your weight loss. Try to eat most of your calories in the first half of your day.

Well, science does not agree with you.

CaffeinatedConfectionist

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman.html

This is a good read - I was going to post the same thing, just from a different site; http://www.biolayne.com/nutrition/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman/

Especially relevant:

"Let’s tackle the issue of metabolic rate slowing down at night time first. The logic behind this theory seems reasonable enough: you lie down in a bed and don’t really move, just sleep, so obviously you are burning less calories than if you are awake doing stuff, even if you are just sitting in a chair or couch resting, you have to burn more calories than just sleeping right? At first glance this seems to jive with work from Katoyose et al. which showed that energy expenditure decreased during the first half of sleep approximately 35% (1). However, these researchers did show that during the latter half of sleep energy expenditure significantly increased associated with REM sleep. So, there are rises and falls in sleeping metabolic rate (SMR), but what is the overall effect? Interestingly, at the very least it does not appear that the average overall energy expenditure during sleep is any different than resting metabolic rate (RMR) during the day (2, 3). Additionally, it appears that exercise increases sleeping metabolic rate significantly leading to greater fat oxidation during sleep (4). This seems to be in line with data from Zhang et al. which demonstrated that obese individuals had sleeping metabolic rates lower than their resting metabolic rates, whereas lean individuals had sleeping metabolic rates significantly greater than their resting metabolic rate (3). So unless you are obese, not only does your metabolism NOT slow down during sleep, it actually increases! The idea that you should avoid carbs at night because your metabolism slows down and you won’t ‘burn them off’ definitely doesn’t pass the litmus test."

tl;dr - no. And like many others on this thread, I eat most of my calories at night. I have no breakfast/coffee, usually, a small lunch, and eat about 1500 calories after 5 or 6 pm.

SLLRunner

Im going to have to say from experience, eating late at night does affect your weight loss. Try to eat most of your calories in the first half of your day.

Okay, but that can only be because you ate more calories than you burned. Otherwise, eating late at night would have made no difference at all.

red8424

i agree with most above that it does not negatively affect your ultimate weight loss goal. But i will say from my experience, weighing myself first thing in the morning after a heavy night meal puts me up a little more than if i stopped eating earlier in the night. Could be water weight concept, too. I'm not 100% but i just speak to what seems to be happening with me.

amaysngrace

Is it an either/or choice? If you're hungry and tired at the end of the day, why dont you try to keep a constant blood sugar level by eating more frequently?

Agree, if I was to eat everything the way the OP mentioned, then I would feel lightheaded at some point throughout the day and my blood sugar would become low and just crash.

glenclouser

Truthfully my old habits were to eat about 2000 cals during the day and then about 3000-4000 cals after everyone in the house was in bed. That obviously is a problem. I have found that in general if you keep your caloric intake in range that the weightloss will commence regardless of when you consume the calories.
However, there is another factor to be considered. I do eat light if I eat just before bedtime. Not because of some inability to burn calories when I sleep because that is absurd. But rather having heavy meals right before bed affects the quality of my sleep. And the quality of my sleep DOES have serious effects on my health. My goal is to be healthy. I want to live long with my wife and kids and maybe someday grandkids. In order for that to happen I need long term changes that improve my health. I have adopted a policy of Eat Well, Play Well (fitness) and Rest Well. This gives me balance. If I adversely effect the quality of my sleep I can not expect to be as mentally engaged in this transformation process as I need to be to succeed. But that's just me:)

Karababy51

I have my 'breakfast' around 1-2 p.m., 'lunch' around 6-8 p.m., then a snack around 11-midnight, 'dinner' around 2-3 a.m. and another snack around 6:30-7:00 a.m. before going to bed. That's my normal 24 hr day. I've lost 14.2 lbs,. so far (weigh-in again later today), in 3 weeks, so no, what time you eat doesn't matter as long as you stay within your calorie deficit goals. However, I personally wouldn't eat anything too heavy or spicy before going to bed because you could get heartburn and end up not getting a very restful sleep. Just my two cents...

Good luck on your journey toward a healthier life and have a great week!