Late Night Eats

11 December 2022
Habiba Yehia

Avoiding late-night snacking has long been popular advice for people trying to
lose weight. It's no surprise that late-night eating is associated with increased
body weight and an increased risk of obesity.
However, few studies have found that eating four hours later than usual causes
several physiological and molecular changes
that lead to weight gain.
They also mentioned that eating earlier in the
day is better for both appetite control and body
weight control.
Late eating, when compared to an early eating
pattern, increased not only mental feelings of
hunger the next day but also the ratio of "hunger"
hormones in the blood.
Late eating also resulted in a reduction in the number of calories burned the
next day, as well as changes that promoted fat storage.
Other large-scale studies investigating the impact of meal timing disruptions on
energy balance (such as skipping breakfast, eating late at night, and working
shifts) discovered that these eating patterns were associated with higher body
weight and a higher risk of metabolic disorders (such as high blood pressure or
type 2 diabetes).
This study adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating the importance of
meal timing in terms of body weight.
Based on the evidence, people who are trying to lose weight may want to avoid
late-night snacks in favor of eating most of their meals earlier in the day.

This research was made with the help of Alex Johnstone, Personal Chair in Nutrition, The Rowett
Institute, University of Aberdeen.
https://www.sciencealert.com/eating-late-at-night-is-not-a-good-idea-this-experiment-reveals-why
https://selecthealth.org/blog/2021/03/pros-and-cons-of-late-night-eating
https://theconversation.com/late-night-eating-may-cause-greater-weight-gain-new-research-points-to-
why-192114