Myth or Truth? Not eating before sleep

I was told that I shouldn't have carbs before bedtime but lean protein or veggies are fine...but I guess it all depends on the person.....

I'm surprised how many folks here are proclaiming myth instead of fact. It's absolutely a fact that eating just before you go to sleep isn't the wisest idea when trying to get in shape or stay in shape. Most nutrition experts agree on this. I'm surprised how many people believe this is a myth.....yikes!

"When total calories are kept constant, does eating at night (whether just before bed or in the middle of the night) lead to weight gain?...

A 1997 review article summarizing the results of past research concluded that meal frequency - whether during the day or at night - had no clear effect on body weight. That is, people who chose to eat frequently, regardless of the time of day, had no higher rate of obesity than those who ate fewer large meals.

In a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged men and women, 9% of women and 7.4% of men described 'getting up at night to eat.' Overall, there was no difference in weight gain between those who did and those who did not. A study in 2004 of more than 800 men and women noted that the more people ate in the morning, the less they tended to eat during the course of a day, while people who ate more at night tended to eat more overall. A trial from January 2005 found that eating late at night was not associated with weight gain even among people with 'night eating syndrome'...

It is possible that, for some people, eating at night is associated with weight gain. Perhaps they find it easier to be careful about
portion size and food choices during the day but simply 'lose it' at day's end. For some, the structure of three meals a day may make it easier to avoid excessive calorie intake. But it's probably a myth that eating before bed has a unique ability to promote weight gain compared with eating at other times of the day. Although scientific studies someday may prove that calories ingested before bed are handled differently than calories ingested at other times, evidence for this commonly held belief is lacking. For now, it's safe to assume that one's weight reflects the balance between calories burned and calories consumed over time, regardless of when you choose to eat."

InteliHealth: Does Nighttime Noshing Make You Fat?
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSI/9273/35323/432544.html?d=dmtHMSContent

"Myth: Eating after 8 p.m. causes weight gain.
Fact: It does not matter what time of day you eat. It is what and how much you eat and how much physical activity you do during the whole day that determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain your weight. No matter when you eat, your body will store extra calories as fat."

NIDDK (National Institutes of Health): Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths
http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/myths.htm

"Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dinner like a pauper' - is there any truth to this?

[Dietitian Dr Trent Watson] sets the record straight: "It's the total energy you eat throughout the day that's important. You can eat all
your daily kilojoules after 6pm, and you won't gain any more weight than if you ate it earlier in the day. Weight gain occurs when you consume more energy than you expend."

The Daily Telegraph: Top 10 food myths busted
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20004610-5006047,00.html

"Subjects who eat late in the evening may increase the amount of glucose stored in muscle as glycogen. In humans, muscle glycogen fluctuates in accordance with periods of muscle activity and subsequent carbohydrate consumption. Data suggest that the consumption of carbohydrate-rich foods in the late evening leads to increased glycogen levels in the muscles. Unless this stored glycogen is burned as fuel, it will ultimately be stored as fat. Therefore, consumption of late-evening meals with carbohydrate-rich foods may also be related to obesity through its effect on hormonal regulation of energy and lipid metabolism. However, we found that the interval of time between the last episode of eating and the time to bed was not associated with
the risk of obesity. Further investigation is warranted to examine the association of this interval, as well as the nutrient composition
(i.e., percentage of calories from carbohydrate) of the last eating episode, with obesity."

American Journal of Epidemiology: Association between Eating Patterns and Obesity in a Free-living US Adult Population
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/158/1/85

"The purpose of this study was to determine whether meal ingestion pattern [large morning meals (AM) vs. large evening meals (PM)] affects changes in body weight, body composition or energy utilization during weight loss. Ten women completed a metabolic ward study of 3-wk weight stabilization followed by 12 wk of weight loss with a moderately energy restricted diet [mean energy intake ± SD = 107 ± 6 kJ/(kg·d)] and regular exercise. The weight loss phase was divided into two 6-wk periods. During period 1, 70% of daily energy intake was taken as two meals in the AM (n = 4) or in the PM (n = 6). Subjects crossed over to the alternate meal time in period 2. Both weight loss and fat-free mass loss were greater with the AM than the PM meal pattern: 3.90 ± 0.19 vs. 3.27 ± 0.26 kg/6 wk, P < 0.05, and 1.28 ± 0.14 vs. 0.25 ± 0.16 kg/6 wk, P < 0.001, respectively. Change in fat mass and loss of body energy were affected by order of meal pattern ingestion. The PM pattern resulted in greater loss of fat mass in period 1 (P < 0.01) but not in period 2. Likewise, resting mid-afternoon fat oxidation rate was higher with the PM pattern in period 1 (P < 0.05) but not in period 2, corresponding with the fat mass changes. To conclude, ingestion of larger AM meals resulted in slightly greater weight loss, but ingestion of larger PM meals resulted in better maintenance of fat-free mass. Thus, incorporation of larger PM meals in a weight loss regimen may be important in minimizing the loss of fat-free mass."

The Journal of Nutrition: Weight Loss is Greater with Consumption of Large Morning Meals and Fat-Free Mass Is Preserved with Large Evening Meals in Women on a Controlled Weight Reduction Regimen
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/127/1/75

So it appears that for most of us there's nothing wrong with eating at night, as long as the entire day's calorie count is appropriate.
However, there may be health risks associated with nighttime eating for people who have GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) and/or asthma.

"Compared to nonasthmatics, asthmatics have significantly more frequent and more severe day and night GER symptoms and significantly more of the pulmonary symptoms (nocturnal suffocation, cough, or wheezing) so often attributed to GER. The habit of eating before bedtime appears in asthmatics to have serious and life-threatening consequences."

American Journal of Gastroenterology: Asthmatics have more nocturnal gasping and reflux symptoms than nonasthmatics, and they are related to bedtime eating.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15128338&query_hl=6&itool=pubmed_docsum

Thanks ElExGordo, for posting studies on this.

1) IMHO, it's a myth that not eating before sleep magically increases the number of calories you burn in a day. So if you move your evening snack up to mid-day but eat the same number of calories per day, you shouldn't see any change over time.

2) On the other hand, if cutting out evening snacks helps you to keep total calories lower than they would be otherwise, you should see the same effect as you would get from cutting out any other daily calories.

For those who say it's a myth. My question is HAVE YOU TRIED IT? The answer is probably no.

From my experience I will tell you that eating right before bed will not derail you weight loss efforts since everything you eat gets broken down while you sleep anyway. HOWEVER, since you don't need nearly half as much energy while sleeping as you would to get through the day, anything that was broken down and NOT burned for energy ends up being stored as FAT. So when you go to sleep on an empty stomach, your body begins break down FAT rather than a stomach full of food. Since you don't feel hunger pangs in your sleep, you'll essentially be burning fat nonstop for 7-8 hours or however long you sleep! If you're having trouble shedding some pounds, try this for a week and I promise you'll see a difference.

NOTE: (Obviously you must still stay within your daily calory range. Overeating and stopping 3 hrs before bedtime won't do you any good. This method works BEST when your diet is balanced to begin with. Meaning your eating at least 5 times a day)


It's just basic common sense and science... there's no hocus pocus to it!. So to answer the question TRUTH but it's not a deal breaker or the end of the world if you don't follow it!

Before anyone comes after my head let me just say that I'm FAR from an expert on the subject of nutrition, but EXPERIENCE has been VERY good to me!

Actually, if you'd read my post, you'd see that I do eat right before bed. I always have, if I'm hungry and have the calories, and have lost 50lbs just fine that way.

I also posted that while I sleep I burn an average of .9-1 calorie per minute while I sleep. Sometime 1.1-1.2. When I sit at my desk typing all day, I burn 1-1.2 calories per minute.

So how, exactly, does my body only need half the amount of energy while I sleep? Heck, Sunday I took a fully lazy day where the hubby and I did nothing but sit and watch TV all day except for eating and using the restroom. I burned an overall average of 1.23 cal per minute for that entire (midnight to midnight) day.

Based on my personal experience and minute by minute data points on what my body does each day thanks to my BodyMedia Fit, I'd say that your claim about energy expenditure while asleep needs some backup.

Regardless of how food metabolizes when you eat late, it has been known to cause indigestion and visions of dead former business partners.



"You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!''

I'm surprised how many folks here are proclaiming myth instead of fact. It's absolutely a fact that eating just before you go to sleep isn't the wisest idea when trying to get in shape or stay in shape. Most nutrition experts agree on this. I'm surprised how many people believe this is a myth.....yikes!

Most nutrition experts? Are you watching Dr. Oz or something?

No, it is not a myth. If you eat too soon before you go to bed, you can get reflux where your digestive juices from your stomach flow up your esophagus. Many people have this problem. For those that do, the medical advice is not to eat 3 hours before you go to bed.

For more info, google GERD (Gastro-Esophagal Reflux Disease).

Of course that has nothing to do with weight loss. In terms of weight loss it makes no difference. If you have reflux problems or difficulty sleeping because of it (I have the opposite I can't sleep if I am hungry) then don't. If you are staying within your calories and maintaining your deficit all is well in terms of weight loss.

I think all that don't eat a certain amount before bed or don't eat after a certain time is bull. If I go to sleep hungry I will wake up during the night and probably eat something bad, or wake up with really bad acid reflux and end up over eating breakfast.

Interesting... I was raised not to eat after dinner. My husband snacks after dinner and I've always kind of looked down on it.

I think I'll keep not eating after dinner 'cos it creates a definite end to the day and I'm never starving hungry, just snackish 'cos I'm bored or thirsty.

I understand the argument about not eating before bed. The argument is you aren't being active enough while sleeping to burn the calories you imbibed beforehand, but your body is still 'digesting' them. What isn't needed is passed through your body or stored if your body seems to think that you need to save the energy from the calories you took in for later.

If you eat something light as a midnight snack: A pack of crackers or some fruit, it will NOT be stored as fat over night, eating half a chocolate cake (which is not really acceptable at any point) will of course cause be added on to your thighs if your metabolism (at rest) is not high enough to burn the calories.

Some people (such as myself) eat something before sleeping to carry us through the morning. I get nauseous if I eat within a 3 hour period after waking up from 5+ hours of sleep. So I plan my caloric intake accordingly before bed. Such as eating a sandwich or nibbling on something such as a lean cuisine spinach and artichoke dip w/ pita bread about an hour before falling asleep. While I'm at work I'll nibble on a packet of crackers until I can get home to eat my lunch.

Others (such as my boyfriend) eat CONSTANTLY and have to eat before falling asleep because their metabolism is so high that they will wake up in the middle of the night absolutely ravenous, so he has to eat a can of ravioli or some ungodly amount of food out of the kitchen at night just to be able to have a decent night's sleep.

Everybody is different, by what they need (personally) for adequate nutrition (extra iron or protein in their diet), and the speed of their metabolism, or even weird body quirks (such as my morning nausea without pregnancy). If you want to eat before bed, then please feel free to do so, but try to eat something healthy such as fruit or some veggies.

A copy and paste of an article I wrote last year:

Ok lets cut to the chase. We as humans like to simplify things when possible. So it must simply be that if we eat and lay down then since we are not moving then we will be more apt to store that food as fat, of course right? WRONG.

It just doesn’t work that way. The human body is a little more complex than that, but yet the explanation is still simple. You’re alive!
What would be the difference between napping and going back to sit in front of a computer,do paperwork, or watch t.v. that would make you less apt to store fat? Your body continues to work. Your muscles are still burning fuel. Your heart is still beating, your CNS is still firing, your kidneys are still working, your lungs, heart, skin. You’d be better off trying to make sure you get proper sleep amounts, to keep your cortisol and other fat storing hormones in check. You’re more apt to be able to control cravings and binging by eating when you want to and eating certain foods. Learn how and what to eat and eat when it’s comfortable to you. Time doesn’t matter, as far as the clock goes.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Weight Control Information Network web site, “it does not matter what time of day you eat. It is what and how much you eat and how much physical activity you do during the whole day that determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain your weight.” Not that government studies are the bread and butter of nutritional wisdom, still it's one source.

Now I would go a step further to change that from day to day(s). Yes we could talk about circadian rhythms and this and that but the fat burning process isn’t a 24 hour cycle. One of the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to changing the body is that it takes days upon days to really impact your system and start getting things really rolling, in a proper approach.

Oregon Health and Science University also supports this fact. And really we could just go on and on and bring in more studies and data. The point is, can we please stop perpetuating this myth? Please? It’s only causing more confusion and ignorance, which is leading to more beating around the bush, and opportunities to be sold on your wasting your time and effort on something that doesn’t matter. I ate a hot dog last night at eleven thirty.

“but I, My sister, my friend, etc., stopped eating after 6 and she lost blah blah pounds!”….Yea, it’s called a freaking caloric deficit! You stopped eating as much as you did before! BOING! Duuuuhhhh.

Yes you could not eat all day and eat one meal at night at 10 if you wanted to. There’s a few reasons why I wouldn’t do this,(comfort being one of them) but yes you could still do this and lose weight. Again the issue will be on whether or not you’re getting the proper amounts of the proper foods to stay in a PROPER caloric deficit. PROPER….PROPER!!! Not just any blind caloric deficit that you hope to get lucky on, not relapse on, and be sustainable for more than a week or two. Cough, Cough…ahem…HCG DIE-IT. (Cut your calories to 500 a day and lose weight nonsense)
Did you know it’s commonly accepted that the body burns more energy sleeping then it does by watching t.v.? Just today I was responding to someone stating that “your body isn’t active enough to “BATTLE” carbs…” What the ..??? Battle? Carbs? You don’t battle carbs, ever. You digest them and convert them to energy, potential or kinetic. End. Again, someone vilifying carbs because that’s what we’re supposed to do, instead of understand how the body works! Carbs make you gain weight regardless of when you eat them because they make your body hold water in order to process them. Same reason why you lose weight automatically when you go low carb. It has nothing to do with burning fat, but with water. Now a consistent low/no carb diet is something else. More on that later.

“Your body doesn’t really recognize what time of day it is. It is a little bit of a myth” – Nigel Denby- from the British Dietetic Association

Now there was a study done by Northwestern University on some mice that found that if they ate when they usually slept they had more weight gain. 1. We’re not mice. 2. I’m not talking about eating at 3 am when you should be sleeping. This study performed by yet another great Doctor, allowed the mice to eat as much high fat(high calorie) food as they liked and compared the results with two different sets at two different eating times. Smart. See why I tell people to get a second, third or 16th opinion when it comes to doctors recommendations? How much “weight”(pun intended) are you going to put into a study like this that allows the subjects to eat whatever amount they wanted? Shouldn’t this have been a controlled amount of calories at least between two groups? He goes on to say “it might be more than calories in vs. calories out…circadian rhythms might be at play…blah blah” Well prove it. ‘Cause you just didn’t! And you’re adding to the industry’s nonsense. But who am I right? I’m not a doctor! I don’t get instant cred. “My doctor said…my doctor said…” ugh…..

Of course this is all if you don’t have a disease or metabolic malfunction. And how many of us really have one of those? We’re all hypochondriacs when it comes to our image,fat, weight loss, etc. Thanks again, to your beloved fitness industry.

The ONLY reason you need to be worried about what time you eat is feeling comfortable. And you might be more prone to get reflux, GERD, have indigestion, etc. Kill the crap about weight gain and find another excuse/explanation. Obviously the industry is too full of crap. We don’t need any more. If you don’t have a clue how/why the body burns or stores fat please stop talking about it. And just as a side note, exercise has little to do with that as well. Sorry. But it’s true. Caloric deficit is king of fat burning. A PROPER caloric deficit might as well be a God. "

As I post this I have eaten about 2000 calories since I got home at 11pm 'til now at about 2am. Over three hours. The same thing with the myth about breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Barring a disease or malfunction, it doesn't matter. I seldom eat breakfast. Just more nonsense ....

when you go to sleep your body's metabolism slows down while sleeping because your not doing much of anything, your energy requirements are low. eating carbs before bed will cause your blood sugar levels to go up. since your energy requirements will be far below your current energy reserves, your body will process almost the entirety of those calories into fat storage. if you need to eat before bed, you should eat primarily slow digesting proteins.

I agree with this ^

Some people are actually here to share advice and what has been working for them. Be it something they read or were told by an actual nutritionist we're here to try to help each other,not troll threads and make countless immature remarks. If something stated is incorrect or information is missing correct it kindly or quote it and apply the missing information.

ditto! no need to be rude, we're not all on the same level here...

For those who say it's a myth. My question is HAVE YOU TRIED IT? The answer is probably no.

From my experience I will tell you that eating right before bed will not derail you weight loss efforts since everything you eat gets broken down while you sleep anyway. HOWEVER, since you don't need nearly half as much energy while sleeping as you would to get through the day, anything that was broken down and NOT burned for energy ends up being stored as FAT. So when you go to sleep on an empty stomach, your body begins break down FAT rather than a stomach full of food. Since you don't feel hunger pangs in your sleep, you'll essentially be burning fat nonstop for 7-8 hours or however long you sleep! If you're having trouble shedding some pounds, try this for a week and I promise you'll see a difference.

NOTE: (Obviously you must still stay within your daily calory range. Overeating and stopping 3 hrs before bedtime won't do you any good. This method works BEST when your diet is balanced to begin with. Meaning your eating at least 5 times a day)


It's just basic common sense and science... there's no hocus pocus to it!. So to answer the question TRUTH but it's not a deal breaker or the end of the world if you don't follow it!

Before anyone comes after my head let me just say that I'm FAR from an expert on the subject of nutrition, but EXPERIENCE has been VERY good to me!

I agree...I have also experienced that when I have lots of carbs in the night before I go to bed, I wake up feeling very lethargic in the morning (Maybe its just me)..so I stopped taking in carbs and have shifted to high protein and low carb food in the evenings, which I eat well before my bedtime and if I feel peckish just before bedtime, I have a few dried fruits and nuts and water...

I wake up feeling great...