Eating late at night? Y/N? Why?

i'm not trying to be snarky, but i think you're misunderstanding what "metabolism" truly means. when you breathe, you burn calories. when you keep a constant body temperature, you burn calories. there are hundreds of other chemical and biological processes (i.e. metabolic processes) going on inside your body whether you are awake or asleep, that all require energy, which is the burning of calories. these include the processes related to digestion. you spend roughly 1/3rd of your life sleeping. you burn roughly 1/3rd of your daily energy expenditure while you are sleeping. unless you believe that you stop breathing while you are asleep and that your body temperature drops to room temperature while you sleep and that all of those other constant metabolic processes come to a screeching halt while you sleep, then there's no way you can disagree with the statement you disagreed with.

wait so you think you burn exactly the same amount of calories sleeping as you do going about your day?

no, you probably burn at a slightly lower rate because your body is at rest while you are asleep and some of your metabolic processes will be affected due to that rest state, but i don't think it would be a significant decrease from your waking hours. keep in mind i'm not talking about energy expended from movement while awake vs. asleep (such as arm or leg movement and things like that). i'm talking about things such as respiration, brain activity, etc. probably alot of processes such as these are affected in a minor way that could be measured and could be added together to see a change in overall energy expenditure rate that is lower by a number on the order 10% or so.

i would expect something like that to be plausible. but when you run the numbers for most people, we're probably talking 10-20 calories per hour. that's my guess.

however, if you believe that it's much higher than that and have something other than broscience to support your belief, feel free to enlighten me.

it's so funny because i'm the furthest thing from a bro. i'm a musical theatre actor in NYC who doesn't even go to a gym. lol

anyway, here we go:

First of all, you're generally right and people do tend to burn about 100-160 fewer calories during a nights' sleep than if they were awake. This isn't a drastic difference, but it's not completely insignificant either.

However, eating a big meal before bed - while it may not DIRECTLY influence weight loss (up for debate) it CAN drastically affect your sleep patterns, and ability to sleep through the night. (if you want me to show you a study to support this i can... but i think this is pretty well accepted)

the interesting thing is that there are a plethora of studies showing that poor sleep results in weight gain: http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=746184

The amount of human sleep contributes to the maintenance of fat-free body mass at times of decreased energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise the efficacy of typical dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction.

In that study, the group of folks who slept 5.5 hours lost 55% LESS weight than the people who slept for 8.5 over the course of the trial.

If eating large meals before bed can interrupt sleep, they can also indirectly slow your weight loss.

Time of day has nothing to do with it. If you have calories left, eat if you're hungry.

I completely disagree with this statement. Every person's body composition is different, and the way our bodies breakdown calories is different. Also, depending on WHAT you eat before going to bed (and how often you do it) can be problematic.

You can disagree, but medical conditions aside we are all very similar in the biological processes that happen. We all gain weight from energy surpluses and we all need a deficit to lose weight because thermodynamics.

We certainly have different preferences so in that regard you might feel a certain way about when you eat, but simply put: you don't gain weight from eating at a specific time if you're eating in a calorie deficit.

So I guess "slow metabolisms" are a myth. Gotcha.

What does this have to do with eating at night? Yes we have different total energy requirements but this has absolutely nothing to do with nutrient timing.

My comment regarding metabolism was in response to your comment regarding "we are all VERY (emphasis added) similar in the biological process...."

There are many variables as to why certain things work for some people, but are detrimental to others. If our bodies worked exactly alike, then we'd all look alike if we all did the same exact things (i.e., nutrition and exercise).

If the OP eats at night and is still losing weight, then great for the OP (or anyone else this works for). This, however, does not work for me, no matter how many deficit calories I may have for that particular day. I ALWAYS see a gain the morning, no matter what I eat, if I eat late at night.

So, I maintain my disagreement to the sweeping statement that "Time of day has nothing to do with it. If you have calories left, eat if you're hungry." This DOES NOT work for SOME people.

Judgmental much?

You are so mad...take a deep breath and step away from the computer...just because someone disagrees with you does not mean they are being judgemental

I assure you that I am not mad. I have a sarcastic sense of humor, but I don't expect any of you to know that.

SideSteel raises some good points. But, my point is that for WHATEVER the reason (I don't really give a damn what it is), eating late at night simply doesn't work for me. It doesn't matter what I eat. I don't give a damn about whatever people say is impossible, blah-blah-blah....I know what the *bleeping* scale says the next morning.

*drops the mic and walks off stage*

The only reason I don't do it is because sodium late at night makes me bloat and I see it on the scale in the morning. I don't take it seriously because it's not real weight, but I still don't like to see it. Eat something healthy late at night if you are hungry, you will be fine.

If it doesn't keep you from sleeping at night, it's okay to eat in the evening. My dad eats late at night and never has breakfast and has never been fat. (YMMV)

right i think THIS is the kicker, and where it really does vary from person to person

Eat all the way up to 11:59PM and then stop, any time after that you run the risk of turning into a gremlin.