Does Eating Late at night Lead to Weight Gain?. Nighttime Eating and Bodyweight

You probably had your head deep in work the entire day and when you finally had the time to whip up a meal, it's past 8pm and your supposed dinner is now a late night meal.

Multiple thoughts concerning weight gain must have crossed your mind and if you are conscious about your weight, then you must have felt guilty because a few kg might add up on the scale. Late night eating could be tagged as the major cause of weight gain but this article would dive into the underlying factors that play a major role in the relationship between late night eating and weight gain.

Metabolism is the chemical process that converts food to energy. The human body gets energy from the food consumed after a series of metabolism have taken place and this energy would be used for the day to day activities. The body would repeat this same process after every consumption and the energy would be used up each time except at night when the body is at rest and the only activities are temperature regulation, breathing and circulation, waste removal and repairs. The excess energy that cannot be used would be stored in the body as fat.

From a different perspective, continuous late eating disrupts the level of hunger hormones, ghrelin, and the hormone that satiates the appetite, leptin. The level of ghrelin is increased and leptin, reduced. Due to this, you would eat and crave more even when you are full and your body doesn’t require any nutrients. As a result of this,calorie intake increases and the body accumulates excess fat.

Protein, carbohydrates and fats are the macronutrients. Proteins are recognized as the major role player for building and repairing tissues, enzymes, and hormones.

Carbohydrates are known as the primary source of energy for the body and they come in various forms, including fiber, sugar, and starch.

Fats main role is to provide energy, support cell function, and contribute to absorption of certain vitamins.

These macronutrients perform necessary functions in the body but they contribute to the weight gain effect from eating late. As much as macronutrients are needed, consuming them in excess has major effects on your body weight. When carbohydrates are consumed,they are broken down into glucose which is simple sugar and released into the bloodstream which raises the blood sugar level. In response to this, the body releases insulin to aid transportation of glucose from the blood to the cells. When Excess carbohydrates are consumed, blood sugar levels spike and the body releases more insulin to bring the blood sugar level down and insulin promotes the storage of excess glucose and glycogen in the liver. When they are full, the remaining excess glucose is converted into fat and stored in the body leading to weight gain.

Mindless eating often occurs at night when you are distracted with a movie, game, book or work. Your brain is distracted and your hand just reaches out for food and takes it straight to your mouth, you most likely eat double or triple your normal portion. Mindless eating is a psychological behavior that is caused by distractions, boredom, eating for comfort etc. Emotional eating is a factor that contributes to mindless eating, this occurs when you eat to satisfy your emotions instead of your hunger. In this situation, you eat to cope with sadness, stress, depression etc.

At that moment, you are not aware of the amount of food you are consuming and it's likely you consume a lot more calories than you should. You would basically eat anything that is edible to you without considering the macronutrient composition. You can desist from mindless eating if you practice mindful eating by portioning your food in smaller plates, savoring your meal and not skipping meals.

After an interview survey, it's interesting to see a contrasting viewpoint on the relationship between late night eating and weight gain. The first respondent does not perceive a correlation between late night eating and weight gain except on nights when a meal doesn’t meet her taste preference. On nights like this, she tends to seek something different and the extra meal contributes to the likelihood of weight gain. The second respondent mentioned that consuming heavy meals past 8pm at night would result in excessive weight gain for her. The third respondent stated that she can eat any meal at any time of the day, even late into the night up to 2am and it would have no effect on her body weight. This survey shows that there is no one rule in measuring the relationship between late night eating and weight gain. The respondents had clear differences in the factor that influenced their weight gain, while the first respondent showed a clear problem with satisfaction, the second indicated that the timing of the meal and composition or heaviness has a great effect on her body weight. It is clear that the metabolism rate of the third respondent is unambiguously different from the first and second respondent.

In conclusion, late night eating is not the direct cause of increase in body weight. You can comfortably enjoy your midnight snacks and late dinners if you take the factors listed above into consideration and also study your body’s response.