My mom always told me not to eat too close to bed time. I find it hard to understand why. Before coming to school I would stop eating around 7pm just because it was part of my everyday plan. Now that I am here in college, I definitely have less time to plan meals.
Not only that, my sleep schedule is definitely off to the point where I am eating late at night. Now its understood that this isn’t healthy or good for maintaining your weight but why?
I never really questioned it before but now that I have accepted the fact that it is sometimes my reality I would LOVE to know the actual effects it has on my body.
Picture found here.
According to this article, when we eat before bed, or late at night; the calories are more likely to be stored in your gut as fat. Your body will naturally be more inclined to store these calories instead of melting these calories away and turning them into energy. Depending on the type of day, it has been shown that food is processed differently throughout.
Now this can have everything to do with a few things, your hormone levels, how much physical energy you are exerting, and how your body is naturally metabolizing anything you are putting into it.
Not only can these calories eaten at an abnormal hour be stored as fat and result in weight gain, but these higher levels of sugar in your blood can also leave you at risk to developing a chronic disease.
Your body is known to have its own calorie clock. Each specific time food enters your body, the capability varies with for your body to metabolize the food. If you can not metabolize your food, the time is not correlated to you eating a meal.
I agree with you. My friend once told me that anything you eat past midnight goes straight to your weight. I am too scared to test that out. Anyone want to volunteer? It would be interesting if you found the effect of eating at a “bad” time. Personally, I’m more concerned about skipping breakfast and only eating two meals a day.
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-healthy-to-eat-only-two-meals-a-day
According to this article it is acceptable to eat two meals a day as long as your body doesn’t complain. What isn’t fair is that going to sleep on a full stomach makes me feel more well rested and energized than when I sleep 4 hours after dinner. I wonder why.
I feel like the healthiest I ever was was during high school when I had my parents buying food and scheduling time to sit down and eat. Since entering college, it’s been hard enough keeping up with classes and trying to be an adult in other senses without having to think up a set eating schedule.
This is really interesting!! I’ve always heard about how bad eating at night can be but I’ve never thought to research it. Specifically, my mom would always tell me that it’s bad. This is so relevant especially now more than ever since I’ve been forgetting to eat during the day and I always end up eating more at night and now I know exactly how this negatively effects my body. There’s actually a really cool trial done comparing depressed patients and binge eating at night that I think you would find really interesting if you checked it out.
http://sk8es4mc2l.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Clinical+Features+of+Night+Eating+Syndrome+among+Depressed+Patients&rft.jtitle=European+Eating+Disorders+Review&rft.au=Kucukgoncu%2C+Suat&rft.au=Tek%2C+Cenk&rft.au=Bestepe%2C+Emrem&rft.au=Musket%2C+Christie&rft.date=2014-03-01&rft.issn=1072-4133&rft.eissn=1099-0968&rft.volume=22&rft.issue=2&rft.spage=102&rft.epage=108&rft_id=info:doi/10.1002%2Ferv.2280&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1002_erv_2280¶mdict=en-US
That’s a really interesting topic to bring up. I had no idea that our bodies had a calorie clock. Also I had no idea if you eat right before bed, its most likely to be turned into fat. That’s something I’ll definitely remember the next time I try to eat before bed. Another thing to think about is what is in the food you are consuming before bed, for example caffeine, possibly if you eat chocolate before bed. Here’s an interesting article about caffeine before bed…http://www.aasmnet.org/jcsm/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=29198
I agree with the fact that sometimes you have no choice but to eat late because of your packed schedule. In addition to weight gain, eating late can also have many other consequences. One of the consequences is that it may affect you learning and memory. Although the types of food weren’t specified, eating late hinders you ability to remember things. This is due to the reason that eating late can mess with your sleep cycle. This article talks about this issue as well as other consequences of eating late at night. http://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/blog/the-downside-of-late-night-eating/
I find this really interesting because I also used to not really eat late at home, but now at college I am more likely to eat late with my busy schedule. Not gonna lie, I have gained weight since coming to college last year, and I’m not sure if that is just because I eat too many Pokey Sticks, or if perhaps my eating schedule could have also caused it. I wonder if also the kind of food that you are eating before bed has to do with weight gain. I’m sure eating cookies before bed could lead to weight gain, but what about a banana or some carrots?