Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?

[snopes]

A link between late-night eating and weight gain has been debated for years. But though many dieters suspect a connection, it has not been borne out in studies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/health/17really.html

[crocoduck_hunter]

I'd suspect that the only real link was that the people who have late night snacks tend to be eating a bunch of extra calories.

[Esprise Me]

So they followed 52 people, and half of them were night owls. That's 26, if I'm not mistaken. They found that this group "typically" ate more calories at dinner, and consumed fewer fruits and vegetables. In order for such a generalization to be accurate, I'm guessing each of these terms would have to apply to at least half the group. Let's say it's only half, with 100% overlap. So after we've adjusted for these factors, we're left with, at most, 13 people who ate after 8 p.m. and had higher body mass index, without the presence of two of the most obvious confounding variables. (They didn't even get into the subjects' exercise habits.)

Now, I'm no scientist, but thirteen people? Is that what passes for a sample size these days?

Does anyone know of a less dubious study that gives weight to the assertion that late-night eating makes you fat?

[Horse Chestnut]

In the study, they also mentioned that the "night owls" got less sleep, which has been linked to weight gain. I also suspect that it may be what you eat after 8PM that leads to the weight gain. When I'm grabbing a late night snack, I seldom head for the broccoli.

[Beachlife!]

Originally Posted by crocoduck_hunter

I'd suspect that the only real link was that the people who have late night snacks tend to be eating a bunch of extra calories.

That's what I would suspect too, which is why watching night owls wouldn't necesarily get the same results. For me personally, anything I eat after 9 is generally 'extra' calories that aren't compensated for by eating less at some other time.

[Esprise Me]

Originally Posted by Beachlife!

That's what I would suspect too, which is why watching night owls wouldn't necesarily get the same results. For me personally, anything I eat after 9 is generally 'extra' calories that aren't compensated for by eating less at some other time.

I can see how that would be true for many people, but it isn't for me. If I eat late at night, I'm not hungry the next morning, and I can skip breakfast without becoming ravenous by lunchtime. If I don't eat late at night, I'm hungry when I wake up. I've heard all kinds of things to suggest a calorie isn't a calorie when it's consumed at a different time of day, but I've never seen anything that looks like significant evidence for it, or even a mechanism by which this might operate or a reason it would be this way (i.e. an evolutionary advantage to conserving food eaten after sunset, or something.) It just doesn't make any sense.

[quink]

I know my weight loss slows down when I'm not sleeping well. Aside from that, when I was dealing with a really nasty sleep disorder (basically the extreme end of being a night owl: Delayed sleep phase syndrome) my habits were terrible. I was too tired to even think about eating properly, and using nothing but heavy starches to fuel myself. I'd eat a giant pot of pasta for dinner around 11pm, but I don't think it was the time of day making me fat.

[MapleLeaf]

Originally Posted by Esprise Me

I can see how that would be true for many people, but it isn't for me. If I eat late at night, I'm not hungry the next morning, and I can skip breakfast without becoming ravenous by lunchtime. If I don't eat late at night, I'm hungry when I wake up.

I always figured that your digestive system, like every other system, is depressed and slowed down while you sleep. So the food gets semi-digested, but you're not hungry when you wake up because your digestive system is still working on the food in the morning.

[Esprise Me]

Or maybe you just get hungry eight or ten hours after each meal, and eating later means you can go longer before eating again. I've heard a lot of people say that eating at night is like filling up the gas tank after you get where you're going. Well, OK, but you'll need gas to go home at some point, right?

I'm guessing it could lead to weight gain simply because the body isn't using those calories for anything, they're just sitting there being absorbed for 8 hours.