Besides the extra calories, eating too close to bedtime can have other health implications such as digestive issues. When sleeping, our digestion naturally slows down as our metabolism enters a resting state. Lying down in bed immediately after eating can lead to symptoms such as indigestion, acid reflux and heartburn.
“Eat after 8, and you'll gain weight” has a nice ring to it, but it's not true. It is based on the myth that the body cannot properly metabolize food during sleep. However, the body has intricate systems of metabolizing, storing, and using energy from food.
Studies tend to show that when food is consumed late at night — anywhere from after dinner to outside a person's typical sleep/wake cycle — the body is more likely to store those calories as fat and gain weight rather than burn it as energy, says Kelly Allison of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's ...
Eating late in the night leaves the body on a 'high alert' state, which interferes with the circadian rhythm. It also prevents our body from powering down. If on the other hand, food is taken earlier, it is not only digested better, you sleep well and wake up energised too.
“When you eat late at night, you're going against your body's circadian rhythm,” she says. It's all about the way your body adjusts its insulin sensitivity. Your body is more sensitive in the morning on purpose. “That's to help fuel our bodies, get us moving and get us through the day,” explains Supan.
It's common to hear the phrase “don't eat after 8 p.m.” when you're trying to lose weight. But when you think about it in terms of calories, the math doesn't work out. As long as you stick to your goal and eat fewer calories than you burn, you should lose weight.
If you want to maintain or lose weight, then you shouldn't eat after 7 p.m. There are myriad reasons why people might not want to eat after a certain time in the evening, especially if it's close to when they go to sleep, says Cara Harbstreet, M.S., R.D., L.D., owner of Street Smart Nutrition..
Late eating also significantly changed gene expressions in fatty tissues leading to reduced breakdown of fat, and increased fat deposition. Researchers explained that the body's natural circadian rhythm drives the creation of hormones and genetic expression involved in weight control.
Scientists can't agree on a single set time, but the consensus seems to be within three hours before bedtime. So if you go to bed at 11 p.m., don't eat after 8 p.m. Banishing late night snacks after that time could help alleviate the symptoms of acid reflux disease, too.
Most people are brought up thinking that dinner should be the biggest meal of the day, meaning they opt for a light breakfast and lunch. However, research has found that a smaller dinner and larger lunch could be the key to helping you shift those weight.
There's no set time you should stop eating to lose belly fat, but, as a guideline, you should avoid eating two to three hours before bed to stop it from disrupting your sleep and body clocks, which can cause belly fat gain. Studies show early dinners can help people lose weight.
Going to bed hungry may be OK if you're meeting nutrition requirements on a daily basis or following a healthy weight loss plan. In many cases, a healthy eating schedule may result in you feeling hungry before bedtime.
Weight gain
Your body gains weight when you take in more calories than you burn off. This is the case no matter when you eat. Going to sleep directly after you eat means your body doesn't get a chance to burn off those calories. In fact, eating a big meal and then hitting the couch can be just as harmful.
What Experts Say About Late-Night Snacking. "If you're hungry at night, you should eat something," says Sarah Pflugradt, M.S., RD, a family nutrition expert. "Eating at night will not slow down your metabolism and if you're smart about snacking, you won't gain weight either.
Having a decent overnight fast may be a great place to start to give your gut bacteria a helping hand. Having a 10-12-hour overnight period, say 7pm-7am where no food is consumed, is a very traditional way of eating.
The practice of 16/8 intermittent fasting involves limiting your intake of foods and calorie-containing beverages to a set window of 8 hours per day. You abstain from food for the remaining 16 hours, though you're still allowed to drink water and other no-calorie beverages, like plain coffee or tea.
Compared to eating earlier in the day, prolonged delayed eating can increase weight, insulin and cholesterol levels, and negatively affect fat metabolism, and hormonal markers implicated in heart disease, diabetes and other health problems, according to results from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the ...
You won't gain weight by merely eating later if you eat within your daily calorie needs. Still, studies show that nighttime eaters typically make poorer food choices and eat more calories, which can lead to weight gain. If you're hungry after dinner, chose nutrient-dense foods and low-calorie beverages.
Your Slow Metabolism:
When you have a slow metabolism, your body doesn't convert food into energy in sufficient quantities. So most of the food you eat is stored in the form of fats. This is the main reason why some people get fat even though they don't eat much.
There's no such thing as a set time you should eat dinner.
Someone who wakes up at 5am could be having dinner at 5pm, while someone who goes to sleep at 1am could be having dinner at 10pm–none of it is inherently wrong or unhealthy, according to Farah Fahad, registered dietitian and founder of The Farah Effect.
If you eat food before getting in bed, food is not digested properly as lying down causes many problems like acid reflux, gas, bloating, or abdominal pain. All these problems are symptoms of indigestion, and the more gap you leave between dinner and sleep, the better your digestive system functions.
The clock-weight connection
That being said, while the body doesn't fiendishly stockpile food as fat when the clock strikes 6 p.m., eating at night is linked to weight gain. And limiting late-night eating has been shown to result in weight loss, too.
On an average, in an Indian household, the preferred dinner time can stretch anywhere from 7 PM to 9 PM. Where 9 PM stands to be a late dinner time. Of course, there might be people who would have dinner at 10 or 11 PM and hit the bed straight.
The bottom line
The ideal time to eat dinner appears to align with your circadian rhythm and allow your body time to adequately digest food before laying down for sleep. This typically means eating dinner at least 2 to 3 hours before bedtime.