Longer days, more calories?

From what I understand ...the longer you are awake you will burn more calories but the ratio of fat you're burning is actually less because you are not asleep long enough for your liver to function appropriately.....the liver works night-shift

From what I understand ...the longer you are awake you will burn more calories but the ratio of fat you're burning is actually less because you are not asleep long enough for your liver to function appropriately.....the liver works night-shift

Site your source for this please! All organs work 24/7!

Hey all,
Some of you probably noticed that yet again I disappeared for awhile. I'm still very much alive, however my new job in Philadelphia has me commuting 4+ hours a day, wrapped around a 9-10 hour work day. Add to that any chores and errands I do before and after, and I've been living 18-20 hour days. Now, here's something that I have noticed since I started doing this - I'm always hungry. I've dropped a bunch of weight since I started (I'm guessing stress is playing a factor), but I'm wondering if its because I'm living such long days.

I used to be up approximately 15-16 hours a day because I had time to get a full 8-9 hours of sleep in at night. Does working and being awake more hours of the day increase your caloric intake significantly?

Ther simple answer to your question is YEs. Staying up late is not good for your body in the long run and you will end up increasing your caloric intake, thus increasing your weight by at least 20%. Ther reason for that is that your body starts to produce exdcess Liptin. Leptin is a protein hormone that regulates energy intake and energy expenditure, including metabolism and appetite. Somewhat ironically, leptin actually serves as an appetite suppressant. Producing too much leptin leads the body to build a resistance to it. This leads to a vicious process. By staying up late, stress hormones are produced. Stress hormones produce leptin. As more leptin is produced, the body builds up a resistance to its appetite-suppressing effects. Once leptin resistance takes hold, each subsequent exposure to high caloric food leads to exacerbated weight gain.
Please see below for more details:
Phyllis Carpoletti, clinical nutritionist at Delaware County Memorial Hospital, says, “Blood concentrations of leptin are usually increased in obese humans, suggesting that they are in some way insensitive to leptin, rather than suffering from leptin deficiency.”

The Northwestern University study implies that simply changing the time you eat can result in weight loss. However, better timing of meal requires a major behavioral change that some people’s schedules may not be able to accommodate. This is particularly true of night shift workers.



Roseanne Leibhart, associate director of Medical Nutrition Therapy at Taylor Hospital, says, “For people who work night shift, the challenge is the initial change in routine. If they are not getting restful sleep in daytime, the stress hormones may be activated. I suggest that they work on developing a routine that includes regularly scheduled meals and sleep.”



Ideally, people should eat their last major meal by 8 p.m. If you are working on the night shift, the best thing you can do is eat a good meal when you wake up and then another good meal before you leave for work so as to prevent snacking. For those who work during the day but simply cannot eat until night, it is suggested that small snacks throughout the day can curb appetite at night. It is vital that these snacks are healthy. Nutritionists recommend snacks such as nuts, low fat cheeses, yogurt and fruits and vegetables that are easy to carry with you.



Crozer-Keystone nutritionists have given suggestions to aid in preventing late-night weight gain. Carpoletti recommends that when eating meals at night, make them less caloric than meals you would eat during the day, such as trading pizza for salad. Of course, this will take both effort and willpower, as would a change in any diet.



Schopf explains, “The major struggle when eating at night is that certain hormones produced lead to a desire for foods higher in fat. However, if you are conscious of this happening, you may be able to control it.”

Leibhart is careful not to generalize that all night eating causes weight gain. For most people, a small snack at night - such as ½ cup of cereal with 8 ounces of skim milk - is acceptable.

Even though Arble and her colleagues’ research is confined to animals, the results are dramatic enough to point to the need for more human research. Through a better understanding of the role of the circadian system for weight gain, new strategies for combating the obesity epidemic in the United States could be developed. Arble’s study in its entirety can be found in the September 2009 edition of the online journal, Obesity.

For more information, call 1-800-CK-HEALTH (1-800-254-3258). Become a fan of Crozer-Keystone on Facebook (www.facebook.com) and follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com). You can also check out our videos on You Tube (www.youtube.com).

From what I understand ...the longer you are awake you will burn more calories but the ratio of fat you're burning is actually less because you are not asleep long enough for your liver to function appropriately.....the liver works night-shift

Site your source for this please! All organs work 24/7!

I don't have a source....I have had this same thought before and I have heard that the less you sleep or if you work night shifts you store more fat......and just what I remember from physiology classes - the liver is most active around 2-3am and that is why alot of cholesterol medications are to taken at night...I'm not saying the liver is not active the rest of the day.....LOL....It is just functioning to break down fat/TG/LDL, etc more in the middle of the night...

I don't know that it's more active at night, maybe it just doesn't have all the other things we put in our bodies to compete with.
As a former night shift worker...I can agree with the more fat part! But I think that is more from crazy hormones than anything else.

As a former night shift worker...I can agree with the more fat part! But I think that is more from crazy hormones than anything else.

Maybe....I read a bunch of studies and it looks like the actual cause is inconclusive but compared to day-workers the largest difference was lipid levels...particularly LDL. Scary, I'm only going to work nights one more year and back to days. It's not worth the risks!

Yes stress is definitely a factor in the weight loss. But given your schedule and how much you used to workout before this new job I'm guessing you don't have much time to run or workout now. Could it be muscle loss?

I don't know about the science behind it but I do know that when I was doing polyphasic sleep schedule (20 minute naps every 4 hours instead of a single 8 hour sleep) you obviously can not do the 3 meals a day routine. You would definitely need to eat more because you are more active longer in the day which means you are burning more calories. (Don't try to tell me you burn the same laying in bed vs being up and active)

When I did polyphasic sleep I was not losing "sleep energy" so it wasn't my body trying to make up for it.