About Hodgson Mill

Late Night Meals Are they Bad for Me

Popular notion holds that eating past 7 p.m. will make you gain weight   What do experts say?  In theory, eating more calories than you use all day leads to weight gain.  So no matter when you eat them, as long as the number of calories you eat daily matches how many you burn, you won’t gain weight.
But here’s the rub:  the way calories are distributed throughout the day may affect hunger, which could affect weight gain.  Research showed that when lean, healthy men spread their meals evenly throughout the day instead of having larger meals sporadically, they were less hungry.  Also, people who skip breakfast, or delay eating earlier in the day, are more likely to binge.  Why?
Going for long periods without eating creates a state where the body is low on fuel, and that is when metabolism slows to preserve energy.  This makes the body more sensitive to the calories that come later, setting the stage to store extra calories as fat and not use them.   Irregular eating leads to binging to make up for the energy deficit. 
Bottomline:  No studies prove that you gain weight just because of eating beyond a certain time.  The logic simply is that the body slows down in the evening, so calories consumed at night may be more likely to be stored rather than used.  Not only is a person less active, but body cells operate according to fluctuations in their patterns of activity throughout a 24-hour period.  Body processes – such as gut motility in digestion or the absorption of nutrients from food – also seem to operate on a kind of body clock showing decreased activity at night. 
If you are eating healthful, regular meals and snacks during the day, a late meal would most probably not be a problem if you keep the meal size sensible.  If you feel stuffed by the time you are crawling into bed, you may have gone too long without eating, and then binged.  Hodgson Mill always proposes steadily fueling up throughout the day, with fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods that keep energy levels on an even keel, yet not leave much excess calories that the body will keep as fat.  And you will be on your way to having the healthy weight you need.