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Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Specs
Need for Speed Most Wanted APK Download NFS Most Wanted APK is a 2005 racing game with an open world created and published by Electronic Arts. First released for multiple consoles and PC, the game is now available for Android and iOS thanks to the great team that ported it to mobile devices. Need for speed most wanted 2005 android game download windows 7.
Written by Xbox Game Studios
Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition | Windows 10
Buy Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Microsoft Store
Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Specs Download
Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Specs Cheat
The playable civilizations in Age of Empires II are based on prominent civilizations of the post-classical period, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the start of renaissance era during the 15th century. There are 35 civilizations in total. 1 The Age of Kings 1.1 Britons 1.2 Byzantines 1.3 Celts 1.4 Chinese 1.5 Franks 1.6 Goths 1.7 Japanese 1.8 Mongols 1.9 Persians. The playable civilizations in Age of Empires II are based on prominent civilizations of the post-classical period, from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the start of renaissance era during the 15th century. There are 35 civilizations in total. 1 The Age of Kings 1.1 Britons 1.2 Byzantines 1.3 Celts 1.4 Chinese 1.5 Franks 1.6 Goths 1.7 Japanese 1.8 Mongols 1.9 Persians. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular strategy games ever with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, a new and fully remastered soundtrack, and a brand-new expansion, “The Last Khans” with 3 new campaigns and 4 new civilizations. Age of Empires 2 is being wheeled out again, not quite new, but definitely improved. It wears its two decades well, but the years are still there, hidden beneath polish and new art and myriad tweaks.
Category: Strategy game
Last Updated: Fall 2020
Price: Free
Rating: 0/100
Developer: Xbox Game Studios
User ratings: Recommended by 0 players!
Read: 8 Best CPUs For Playing Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition This January
→ See all the Best CPUs For Gaming in 2020
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Gameplay/Trailer
Recommended System Requirements and Specifications
Windows PC Requirements
Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon 64x2 5600+
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420 or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6850 or Intel® HD Graphics 3000 or better
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 30 GB available space
Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: 2.4 Ghz i5 or greater or AMD equivalent
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GTX 650 or AMD HD 5850 or better
DirectX: Version 11
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 30 GB available space
Macintosh Requirements
Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Linux Requirements
Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
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Find specs for all Windows versions: 1. Click the Windows Logo button on your keypad + R key. In the small little window that appears titled 'Run', type 'msinfo32' and hit the enter key. A window will appear showing you detailed info on your System specifications.
Alternative steps: Windows 10 specs:
Step 1. Open Windows Explorer, locate “This PC”.
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Windows 8 specs:
Processor, memory and operating system: Click the Windows Start Button > Settings Tile > PC and Devices > PC Info.
OR
Step 1. Click the Windows Start Button > search for “System” in the search bar.
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How to see the Graphics Card: Click the Windows Start Button > Settings Tile > Control Panel (bottom left) > Devices and Printers > Device Manager > Display Adapters. That's it.
Windows 7 specs:
Step 1. Right-click the “Computer” icon to open the menu > Select the “Properties” option.
This last instruction also works for Windows Vista and XP.
As you can see there was no need to download computer malware to your system.
Recommendations: It is recommended you have double the RAM recommended by the above and Game makers above. The ROM should also be less than 5% of the Available Space on your computer or a maximum 15%.
Troubleshooting: What to do if you run into problems
If you ever run into problems playing the game or getting it to work for your PC or computer, here are some steps you can take:
DOWNLOAD THE GAME
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Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular strategy games ever with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, a new and fully remastered soundtrack, and brand-new content, “The Last Khans” with 3 new campaigns and 4 new civilizations.
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition celebrates the 20th anniversary of one of the most popular strategy games ever with stunning 4K Ultra HD graphics, a new and fully remastered soundtrack, and brand-new content, “The Last Khans” with 3 new campaigns and 4 new civilizations. Explore all the original campaigns like never before as well as the best-selling expansions, spanning over 200 hours of gameplay and 1,000 years of human history. Head online to challenge other players with 35 different civilizations in your quest for world domination throughout the ages.
Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition | Windows 10
Choose your path to greatness with this definitive remaster to one of the most beloved strategy games of all time.
No reviews yet!!
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition System Requirements (2021) - full specs, system checker and the gaming PC setup you need: Can I Run Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition?
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition system requirements
Buy Age Of Empires II: Definitive Edition - Microsoft Store
Memory:8 GB
Graphics Card:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
File Size:30 GB
OS:Windows 10 64bit
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition minimum requirements
Memory:4 GB
Graphics Card:AMD Radeon HD 6850
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition File Size:30 GB
OS:Windows 10 64bit
Automatically test your computer against Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition system requirements. Check if your PC can run the game with our free, easy-to-use detection tool or enter your system manually.
Age Of Empires 2 Definitive Edition Specs Download
Can I Run Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition?
To play Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition you will need a minimum CPU equivalent to an Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867. Whereas, an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 is recommended in order to run it. In terms of game file size, you will need at least 30 GB of free disk space available. The cheapest graphics card you can play it on is an AMD Radeon HD 6850. Furthermore, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 is recommended in order to run Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition with the highest settings. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition system requirements state that you will need at least 4 GB of RAM. Additionally, the game developers recommend somewhere around 8 GB of RAM in your system.
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Multisim download mac os x64. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition will run on PC system with Windows 10 64bit and upwards.
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Windows 8.1 9600 Iso
Sep 11, 2013 Microsoft has confirmed the RTM build number is Windows 8.1 9600.21-1623 and we now have the highest level of certainty that these files are the Windows 8.1 'Release to Manufacturer' (RTM). These files were released to OEM parners by September 1, 2013. Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center = Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro + Windows 8.1 Pro Pack Windows 8.1 Pro Pack is needed to update Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro to Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. These are the ' missing ' images that company Microsoft ' forgot' to include in their final original images MSDN. Microsoft Windows 8.1 Version 6.3 (build 9600) Bootable ISO Microsoft released Windows 8.1 which it is a major update for Windows 8. This update is officially launched at last quarter of 2013. MS ToolKit – is an activator of Microsoft products (Windows, Office) the latest versions. This utility is very popular because it is a universal means of activation. It activates Windows 8.1 Pro x64 / x86 build 9600. Windows Blue activation occurs immediately and requires you only run the activator, nothing more.
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Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center & Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2013 Final + Language Pack | 7.93/9.41 Gb
Windows 8.1 9600 Product Activation
MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.1.LANGUAGE.PACK.RTM.X86/X64.MULTI.CL1.DVD-WZT Mirrors:Letitbit-Fileom-Rapidgator This release includes the latest developments from the best Microsoft (' release -all- in-one - of -Microsoft'). Windows 8.1 Language Pack x86/x64: Languages Included:
English, Japanese, Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese-Brazil, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Swedish, Thai,Turkish, Ukrainian, Chinese - Hong Kong SAR, Chinese - Simplified, Portuguese-Portugal, Kyrgyz. How to install language pack : - Press Ctrl + R to open Run crate. - Type LPKSetup.exe - Chose Install display languages - Browse to folder that contain downloaded language files - Install MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.1.LANGUAGE.PACK.RTM.X86.MULTI.CL1.DVD-WZT RELEASE DATE: 08/21/2013 BUILD: 6.3.9600.16384.WINBLUE_RTM.130821-1623 FILE: 9600.16384.130821-1623_x86fre_Client_MULTI_IRM_CL1_DV5.iso SIZE: 1,483,513,856 byte SHA-1: 3B62F16F50F3F80A58BE29B4B3A99885BD8F1AD4 MD5: 93CCCBFD2F4EC5BB13C7E934CADB4056 NOTE: this is original M$ image. MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.1.LANGUAGE.PACK.RTM.X64.MULTI.CL1.DVD-WZT RELEASE DATE: 08/21/2013 BUILD: 6.3.9600.16384.WINBLUE_RTM.130821-1623 FILE: 9600.16384.130821-1623_x64fre_Client_MULTI_IRM_CL1_DV5.iso SIZE: 1,963,837,440 byte SHA-1: 4D567D72CBFF463F5C2C64B0B221E7A408240183 MD5: 58FE54CFB87506C83DF5BAECF181C5A8 NOTE: this is original M$ image. Screenshots Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center & Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2013 Final + Language PackWindows 8.1 Pro with Media Center & Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2013 (Final,En,x86,x64) Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center & Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2013 (Final,En,x86,x64) Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center & Microsoft Office Pro Plus 2013 (Final,En,x86,x64) Offered release disc images Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center completely analogous officially licensed kit sells two products from Microsoft: Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Pro Pack: Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center = Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro + Windows 8.1 Pro Pack Windows 8.1 Pro Pack is needed to update Windows 8.1/8.1 Pro to Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. These are the ' missing ' images that company Microsoft ' forgot' to include in their final original images MSDN. To make a new use of Windows ADK for Windows 8.1 ( set of deployment and evaluation of Windows). Disk Images Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center developed by adding listed under original images MSDN- Windows 8.1 ( as amended Professional) Windows Media Center using the license keys from Microsoft. Nothing more ' IMPROVED ' : Added ' Important' not clip 'superfluous .' With Windows Media Center, house entertainment in Windows, you can watch and record TV programs , make slideshows from your photos , hear to songs from your music library , play CDs and DVD- discs. Use all the features Media Center will permit you to turn your computer into a full-featured house entertainment center . More - the official site Microsoft. In the future, based on the data disk , you can make your own custom images with a set of additional software , for example, a typical configuration for replication to multiple computers. Doing training section once, we will be able to deploy new computers working OS with all the valuable software installed and labels in less than half an hour. In assembly-based Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center are the final images of the original Microsoft MSDN (Build: 6.3.9600.16384, Release Date: 09/09/2013): en_windows_8_1_x64_dvd_2707217, en_windows_8_1_x86_dvd_2707392, ru_windows_8_1_x64_dvd_2707370, ru_windows_8_1_x86_dvd_2707488. These images contain two versions : Core and Professional. At the core assembly Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 are the final images of the original Microsoft MSDN (Build: 15.04.4420.1017, Release Date: 10/24/2012). additional information: Installing Windows 8.1. 1.In the installation process it is possible to skip entering a product key . On the ' Product Key - Prodyct key' ( appears after installation , before page ' Personalization - Personalize') there is a button ' Skip - Skip' ( as in Windows 7) . Installation without a key need , for example, in the following cases :
- Key and yet it is supposed to acquire anywhere , enter and activate Windows 8.1 after installation; - Instead of entering the key after installation, use any activator. 2.If installing Windows 8.1 no internet connection , then immediately invited to make a local account . If your computer is connected to the Internet and you do not have an account Microsoft (Microsoft account - Windows Live ID), is to create a local account is necessary : - On the ' Account Login Microsoft - Sign in to your Microsoft account' at the bottom of the window choose 'Create a new account - Create a new account'; - On the next page 'Creating a Microsoft account - Create a Microsoft account' at the bottom of the window pick ' login without Microsoft account - Sign in without a Microsoft account'. IMPORTANT ! To fully utilize all the features of Windows 8.1, the user must be a Microsoft account - Windows Live ID. It is required for SSO to all network services Microsoft - system websites Microsoft. Allows users to enter all network services Microsoft, including the application store for Windows 8/8.1 - Windows Store, with a single account. Application Store Windows Store - analogue Mac App Store and Google Play. First became available in Windows 8. Windows Store - the only way to buy and download applications for Metro- Windows 8/8.1. Applications for free and pay the cost in the range up to $ 999.99 . Uploaded by users in Windows Store App checked Microsoft content and compatibility with Windows 8/8.1. They are certified by Microsoft and are therefore safe. Installing Office 2013 . Microsoft recommends most users to install 32 -bit version of Microsoft Office, so it avoids the problems of compatibility with most other applications, especially with third-party add-ons . Automatically installs the 32 -bit version of Office, even on computers running a 64- bit version of Windows. 64- bit version of Microsoft Office is not compatible with any of the 32-bit editions of Office. Thus, before you install the 64- bit version of Office, you must remove every 32-bit programs Office. Disc Service Office provides its 32 - and 64 -bit versions . To install the 64- bit version of Office, run Setup.exe from the folder x64. In the first installation window 'Microsoft Office 2013 ' , you can pick to install the following products Microsoft Office: - Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 ; - Microsoft Project Professional 2013 ; - Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013 ; - Microsoft Visio Professional 2013 . If you need any products , then install them one by one, one by one. In the ' Select the installation type - Choose the installation you desire' click ' Customize - Customize' and pick the desired languages : Ru, En or both. Click ' Install - Install Now' and ALL! Wait for the cease of installation. IMPORTANT ! Immediately after installing version Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center: Build: 6.3.9600.16384. Version of Office Professional Plus 2013 : Build: 15.04.4420.1017. After installing some updates last group of digits Windows 8.1 version and the last two digits of the group version of Office 2013 will change . IMPORTANT ! Get detailed information about Windows 8.1 and Office 2013 . IMPORTANT ! Troubleshooting . Today Windows 8.1 is not such a ' device-independent ' as Windows XP/7/8. Once installed upon some computers at once or over time may begin or complete failures ' hang' the system. For example , Windows 8.1 is not still work correctly with some motherboard models from the company GIGABYTE. Support GIGABATE no hurry to eliminate these problems. Some drivers from NVIDIA ( including the latest from Windows Update - be careful! ) 'Kill ' Windows 8.1 ( however, as Windows 8). Nothing can be done . Have to wait for updates upon Windows Update, eliminate these problems. Therefore , before ' demolish ' Windows XP/7/8, it is recommended to do a full backup of the program Acronis True Image. If you are lucky with the ' iron ' , you can speedily go back to the working of Windows, and not to suffer with setting Windows 8.1. Procedure and installation of treatment Both products can be activated by official license keys. If you do not have them , then offered two options for activating Windows and Office: 1. KMS- activation autonomous offline KMS- activator for a specified period with automatic periodic reactivation - reactivate Windows and Office.
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Microsoft_Office_Professional_Plus_2013 (Final_Volume License_En, Ru, x86, x64). Iso CRC32: BBF6D303 MD5: 70AFD1E40E46800556CDF4BA6A308A36 SHA- 1 : F8CDC9ADF820B4984960546B1FB6222E7F748310 Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (Final_Retail License_En_x64). Iso CRC32: 8EA7CBF3 MD5: 76E7050F13BDDD2B2E9DC42CAEDBC0A8 SHA- 1 : DF038C5321E35A7967F893DB05A12E07748416AC Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center (Final_Retail License_En_x86). Iso CRC32: 3E8BCFB2 MD5: BA1FABAF33FD4A0709B2D460F4608053 SHA- 1 : DA4CE3EE569F55E0F165DCBCD6DB473ABF924816 Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center (Final_Retail License_Ru_x64). Iso CRC32: 6382D082 MD5: D9B504ED1A03AF06363713602C82FE80 SHA- 1 : 2797F626099E2467C9579C80CED7A73750536DF6 Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center (Final_Retail License_Ru_x86). Iso CRC32: 26FBD56B MD5: 2FB6AF90D161D3C3181CCE4E1D132E4C
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Terraria Steam Key Generator Online
Aug 11, 2018 free steam top games in 2019! Steam keys generator! Without survey! Fake STEAM Key Generator Since I have put my game engine and my survival game on Steam, I am getting quite a lot of requests for free steam keys. Some of these requests are valid, made by nice youtubers and twitchers, but a lot of them are made by scammers, pretending to be a popular youtuber or similar but easy to make out to be an impostor, trying just to get a handful of free keys, in order. Terraria is a game in which the player does not know what to expect. Take hold of the arms and stop the enemies from entering your territory. The main task of the player is digging deep underground, look for treasure, money and useful things that can be useful in a mission.
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Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s the conclusion on this study of late night eaters.
Check out the U.S. News article for Dr. Cederquists take on late night eating
Check out this study from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Photo Credit: Going to bed, Putting the small ones to bed, Me: during the day and before sleeping, Market Time, Brand-Aid, Danger.
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain? published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s the conclusion on this study of late night eaters.
Check out the U.S. News article for Dr. Cederquists take on late night eating
Check out this study from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Photo Credit: Going to bed, Putting the small ones to bed, Me: during the day and before sleeping, Market Time, Brand-Aid, Danger.
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain? published first on http://fitnetpro.tumblr.com/
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s the conclusion on this study of late night eaters.
Check out the U.S. News article for Dr. Cederquists take on late night eating
Check out this study from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Photo Credit: Going to bed, Putting the small ones to bed, Me: during the day and before sleeping, Market Time, Brand-Aid, Danger.
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain? published first on https://www.nerdfitness.com
0 notes
Text
Pickup Post #7 - Sony “Wiiks” 3
Been a while since a post, so this one will be pretty long, despite not having found something every single week, there are a few here, so it is pretty long. I have still made time to stop at a few places. I hit my local Goodwill, a few yard sales, and had a LetGo pickup. It hasn’t been terrible, just a little slow.
So let’s get into it.
I’ll try to go in order, and just after the last post I went into my local Goodwill and there looked to be a fresh PS2 drop off. No system, but there were about 15 games that weren’t there the last time I was in. Most of it was schlock, sports games, Guitar Hero and the like. But there was a copy of Need For Speed Pro Street that was in decent shape. I’d never played it before, and it was the best of the lot. The problem was, I’d forgotten my Game Hunting money that day. I really try not to let this hobby get in the way of normal life. I only hit places when they are on the way to a place I am already going, or if they are pretty close to a place I am already. I also keep this strictly within the game hunting money budget. So I looked for a place to hide the game in the store. I dropped it behind a row of DVDs. They were to the front of a pretty deep shelf and there was room behind it. I figured, if it’s there when I get back, fine, if they find it and it sells, I won’t be heartbroken.
Well, I was back the next day picking up dinner nearby, so I popped in, and, it was still there.
I popped it in to see if it worked and it does. Didn’t really play, but I did a quick race just to get an idea of it, and it is weird. I haven’t played any NFS series since the PSX had NFS Hot Pursuit. I did play that a lot, and enjoyed it, which was probably the only reason I gave this a go. This ran me $3.21. Still not a bad find.
It is complete. Disc is in good shape. Not great, but good. I’ll throw this in the collection to kill some time at a later date.
The next week I stopped at a yard sale that was supposed to have Wii games. It was a Facebook ad so I could communicate with the seller. I asked what Wii games she had, and she replied with Mario Kart, some hunting games, and that she wasn’t sure what else. I thought it was worth a stop, it wasn’t far from my house and I was on the way to work anyway. I got there as the sale was opening, I asked about the games, it was raining and I was the only one there. Everything was still being set up because it was still a mess. They could not find the Wii games anywhere. I was disappointed, I’ve been trying to get a copy of Mario Kart Wii for a while with no luck. People keep wanting $15+ for it on LetGo or OfferUp, not that I can blame them, I think Pricecharting has this game at $15 just for loose disc. But, I thought this might be an opportunity to pick it up for $5 or so. I hung around, poking through the pile of mess they had in the garage, hoping he may find it. They had a pile of PS2 games that I glanced through. A case with like 25 DS games in it. I wished I had more time to paw through everything, but I was on my way to work. Sitting on top was Spirit Tracks, which would have been awesome CIB, but I popped it open and saw some other schlock game. Another let down. Pawed through the PS2 games a little more thoroughly, and it was more crap, hunting games, Medal of Honor games, Guitar Hero and sports games, etc. They did have Hot Shots Tennis, and having just got a Hot Shots Golf title, I figured why not. I came here, and have killed 15 minutes already waiting for the Wii games to turn up when it was supposed to really just be a 5 minute stop, might as well walk away with something. Offered $1, and he took it.
Haven’t played it, but the Hot Shots series is nothing less than a “Me Too” Mario Game copycat series, so if it plays anything like Mario Tennis, it can’t be that bad. For a buck? Why not.
It’s in good shape, and complete. Disc is better than NFS pro Street, so this one will go in the collection as well.
The PS2 collection is starting to fill out a little bit at this point.
I have gotten the PCSX2 emulator, and Free McBoot as well, so I dumped my own BIOS and the emulator works pretty well. Not all games play, but most do. I have also ripped these to ISO and run them from a HDD on the PC (they load SO much faster) and they can be loaded on a HDD on the PS2 as well (once I figure out how, heh). You can see the HDD in the “surgery” shot from last post, along with an IDE to USB adapter. So that’s in the plan. It is an 200GB IDE, or PATA, drive and I only plan on keeping copies of games I actually own on the HDD, simply to keep me from having to handle the discs to play the games. Hopefully that proves to work out. I’m just leery of all the programs you need to install and use to accomplish it. I may build a disposable windows virtual machine to handle it in case something winds up being malware.
Anyway, enough of that. Moving on.
The following week came and went, and on that Friday, there was another sale right on the way to the office that advertised a “Nintendo Handheld” and “Nintendo Games”. So I decided to investigate. I figured it could be anything from an old Game Boy and games, on up to a 3DS XL and games. Well, it was a regular DS, looked to be an original generation. With a $50 sticker on it. After I did a double take and tucked my eyes back in their sockets at the price, I leafed through the games. All schlock little kids games. Not even an Animal Crossing. Nothing. The sign there said they want $10 PER GAME.
Per game!?
You have like 12 games here! You are telling me you want $170 for all these games and the DS? You know for $200 you can buy a brand new 3DS XL. I’d be a buyer for the entire lot at maybe $30. MAYBE. But not $170, not even $150, or even $100. So I forgot about it. Way too far apart, and I didn’t want to insult her. If I offered even $40 it would sound insanely low to her given what she clearly thought it was worth.
Moving through the sale I spotted a Wii though, all by itself. No cords, no WiiMotes, nothing. Even missing the controller port flap. The games were sitting there, also labeled at $10 each, but the Wii itself was labeled $7.50. Already a decent deal, but with everything else priced so high, this was the only opportunity to get anything out of this sale. I decided to see if I could get it for a steal. I said that Wii looks a little rough, any cords for it? She says no. I’m like man, no cords, no controllers, it’s missing the controller port cover flap, would you take $5 for it? She thought about it for a moment, and accepted the $5.
Here it is.
It’s in pretty good shape, a little dirty, nothing that can’t be washed up. Since the Wii is my newest console that I own, it is on the living room TV, it was a quick swap in to test it. It works. When it powered on I heard it spinning up a disc, before it even got past that first black screen that makes you press A. I was like oh nice, free game. Judging from the games that were on the table that they wanted $10 each for, I was almost positive it was going to be some Barbie game, or something like Carnival Games. However I was pleasantly surprised. If you follow me on Instagram I’ve ruined this for you, but for those who don’t know yet, check it.
WHAT!?
Been looking for this forever, and I finally get to play it. It’s a bummer it isn’t complete. But I’ve been looking for a Wii to try Soft Modding. I didn’t want to eff up my Wii somehow in the process and lose all of the content that I’ve paid for, so I have been keeping my eye out for a cheap Wii. This was perfect. To get a copy of Mario Kart Wii on top of that is just a nice bonus!
Finally, I had a LetGo deal with someone. We went back and forth quite a bit. The lot is for 20 PS2 games and she had it priced at “$2 each”. I was honest right off the bat, $40 is not going to happen with anyone on these titles, I said I’m usually at about $1 per game for PS2, and at first glance I see only about 11 games that are worth anything, would you take $11? I was expecting to be ignored or at least get a counter offer, that is the MO most of the time on LetGo, no one wants to hear the ugly truth about the games or systems they have. You offer a reasonable price for something, but its only half what they have it listed for and they simply ignore you. This offer being at only about 25% is like a lowball, but she had it priced WAY too high is all.
She just said “Sure”.
Since it looked like we’d make a deal I took a closer look at the titles. They were worse than I thought, the non-sports games were the likes of Guitar Hero, and Cabela’s schlock. That reduced the “good” titles down even further to more like 7. I use the term “good” loosely. In this lot good simply meant it wasnt a sports or guitar hero game. Even those 7 were luke warm, but I was still interested if she could come down some more. I said honestly, after looking closer, I’m closer to $7 on this, I apologize, but the titles are pretty weak. Plus I didn’t know if they were complete or not, though I suppose I could have asked, but since she agreed to $11 so quickly I thought I’ll just throw a price out as if they aren’t.
She said OK.
Apparently she knew they were on the weak side too. We met, and I picked them up.
I am glad I lowered my offer, NFL 2K3 is the ONLY complete title. The rest are without manuals. Which I’m OK with at a price of $0.35 each, I had no intention of keeping anywhere near all of these, I honestly wanted them to beef up the sale of the second PS2 I have, hoping to tack on an extra $10 - $15 or so with a nice big stack of games in the picture.
I’ll probably only hang onto these ones, and even a few of these are maybes:
Of those in the picture, GT3, SOCOM and GTAIII are the only ones I really wanted to actually keep, and of course none of them are complete. So who knows about even those.
I was thinking of asking $25 for the second fat PS2, power and video cables, and one controller. If I can throw all of the leftover games from this lot on top of it and get $35, I’ll be a happy camper.
Last thing about this pickup, the ATV games are wrecked, especially ATV Offroad Fury 2. The case is destroyed.
You can see ATV Offroad Fury in the background there too, with a big hole in the art on the spine. A couple more shots of the damage:
Fortunately, the find with the two PS2s in it from Sony Weeks 2 had an empty case for ATV Offroad Fury, and the Goodwill by my work had some empty cases they just went ahead and gave me that included ATV Offroad Fury 2, the last time I bought something there. Which by the way was GTA Vice City, I’ll get to that in a minute. Here are the empty cases.
So lets freshen up the ATV Offroad Fury games. Why not? Top row, from this find, bottom row from the cases I had on hand.
Boom.
There we go, both in their new homes. The ATV Offroad Fury game was even a greatest hits, so the disc and case match. Not bad. Not valuable, or perhaps even the greatest games, but they are at least complete now.
As for the mentioned GTA Vice City, I grabbed that because it was absolutely immaculate.
It literally looked like someone bought it, took the shrink wrap off, and then set it on a shelf, later to stick it in a box and bring it to Goodwill.
So down to business, we had $79.36 left at the end of the last post, so we are pretty good on hunting money. We bought two games at the Goodwill for a total of $6.42, that takes us down to $72.94.
Then we got the $5 Wii, and the $7 LetGo deal, bringing us down to $60.94 remaining hunting money.
I am probably going to relax a bit on hunting for a week or two. I’m not going to stop altogether but may back off a little bit. Maybe focus on getting a few of the games listed on eBay that I have that need to be sold before getting back out there real hard core.
Either way, $60.94 remaining is still doing quite good considering what we got in the last month. Happy hunting everyone.
2017.07.18
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[NF] Autismo
Be me, 11 or so years old.
You've gotten your hands on a computer fan somehow, you're don't remember, but your father doesn't seem to care that you have it for some reason.
You're holding it out of the side of the Truck and it's spinning at an insanely high speed. You love the sound of the "whirrrrrrrRRRRRR^RRRRRRRRR^rrrrrrr" that revs up as you change the angle of entry into the feedback do-nothing electric turbine you invented
You've loved planes ever since your mom helped you make one out of hot glue and cardboard with her when you were 4 years old. You modeled it after something she found on the internet probably, and you flew it down the stairs but it dived because we used too much glue (I'm hard on things, she probably wanted to compensate but didn't know about the rocket science of center of gravity vs center of pressure/propulsion.) You wish you understood why the plane didn't fly like a plane
You see a fly TRAPPED on the dash of the truck because it won't risk flight in this turbulence. you don't know why but you can't imagine what it's like to be a fly since your mom got you a book about flies and other insects that you loved because insects scare you but the pretty book told you which ones are scary and which ones just look scary, so it's okay. Mom is gone now, but she told you lots before Dad started yelling at you every day. It's going to be okay, he tells you that he loves you. You don't have to be scared of the medicines, just look them up on wikipedia and try to understand. Someday you'll realize it wasn't okay and you'll cry even more, but that's okay. right?
The fly is only alive for like 4 days. Sometimes people call it a fly, if there's a bunch of them it's called flies and all you know is that they're bad for food. You don't want them on your food, for some weird reason. The book didn't tell me about that.
I can't see the fly's whole life, but I can imagine it, mostly because the book talked a lot about flies because that makes sense when you see so many flies, that's what you'd want to know about the most so that's what people know the most about.
It's boring to be a fly. You just go, "OH SHIT I'M ALIVE BETTER FIND FOOD", then you master the food thing and you go "F*** B**** GET MONEY" and then you die, like that's the whole thing and it takes like 4 days. No time for questions.
*3.5 years later*
A psychologist with a funny last name sits across from you at a hexagonal picnic bench under a gazebo at the end of a red hexagonal cinder block trail in the courtyard of a nursing home where the smell of cleaning products reminds you of the stuff in the hospital when you watched your dad dying.
He tells you that you're very smart and you should believe in yourself, and that he wants you to understand your own psychology so that you have an understanding of what's going wrong and you can short-circuit the thought into another thought about how that doesn't matter or it's okay, you can just keep going.
But all you want to talk about is what that fly thought about time, you don't know why. What you don't know is WHY. HOW? WHAT? 4 days. You'd rather distract yourself than continue crying and telling a stranger about all the ways and things and times that make you suicidal.
"there's an INDY gene in those flies" he says. "You flip one gene (set/expression/phoneme?) from dominant to recessive and they live for 8 days instead of 4."
You sit there, dumbfounded.
Autismo part II: Redux
be me, 10 years later (24 years old)
You realize that concurrency is not A, but *THE* mental capacity solution to a reduction in time.
You listened to a set of books for fun on the drive to and from your University while you were living with your grandmother, a 45 minuted drive. First, Too Big To Fail, Andrew Sorkin's exhaustive journalistic account of the collateralized-debt-obligation (CDO) securities leverage and insurance, then bubbling and pop-type failure leading up to the week's events in 2008 that cause Lehman, Bear Stern, AIG, and (bank of america, maybe?) into liquidation positions.
You illegally ripped the CDs, not your CDOs, because you're poor. Except you're cash poor because you have $383,000 but your uncle in control hates his life and thinks that's why he works hard. He's a manufacturing infrastructure engineer with a 2 year degree, and that was hard.
So he wants you to hate your life until you get a job too, because that means you'll make a lot of money and be an engineer or something probably. But you already got a job. He made you. He told you that you only get to spend $10 a week on things you don't need unless you get a job and make the money yourself. You like computers and Jobs at the local theme park hurt your back. No good reason, they just want you to stand there to use a computer that you could totally use while sitting down because you're at the end of a buffet and you don't have to touch or move any food.
That job, your love of computers, your family all seem to make you happier and it also makes you ate life even more. At church on Sunday, the Pastor rips into you personally "PORNOGRAPHY IS THE DEVIL", "THINKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS AS IF THEY ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN GOD IS THE DEVIL", "SCIENCE IS EVIL", "PEOPLE WHO QUESTION GOD ARE WORSHIPING SATAN" he shouts through complex analogies that are aimed to keep you from hearing the actual fascism in the words. You're just the idiot savant kid sitting in the back running all of the audio equipment the entire time.
I tried to tell the pastor that he could put the sermons on a format of more dense form like a hard drive in a computer, and back it up to another hard drive, but every few weeks an 8 GB SD card would fill up and we'd just use a new one. THAT'S WRITE, WRITE ONCE, CATALOG DATA IN FLASH STORAGE LIKE A FUCKING NINTENDO, THIS MAN LIVED IN THE DARK AGES IN 2013. Oh, but the kid in the back thinking about how to jail break his iPhone and download the Golden Master release of the first iOS with multitasking, yeah, he's worshiping SATAN by not listening to you repeat the same fear mongering over and over.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in God now, my God, not yours, let's not talk about it right now. Yes, pornography is bad, but not why you think, it's because it's actually bad, like, a psychologist can prove it to you. No, thinking about other things isn't the devil, but thinking about how to make a thing or improve on a thing to make yourself like God, well that is, and I'm looking at you Mark Zuckerberg. Science isn't evil, it's an effort to understand things from first principles that sometimes leads to atomic bombs, that just means that we shouldn't make or use atomic bombs, not "DURR SCIENCE DA DEVIL". And those people questioning God are called lost sheep, great job welcoming them into your church pastor.
Anyway, you got the CDs ripped onto your Android phone and turned in the audio book CDs in time and deleted your copy because you knew there were internet services for libraries to do that and your library just doesn't have one yet. I probably should have told them about that. Your android phone sorted the numbered tracks generated by windows with a slightly out of order algorithm by comparison
You realize numbers are sorted differently by the alphabetic sorting in the file system on an android Samsung Galaxy S3, apparently. I was getting a degree in computer science but couldn't tell this was the case until the end of the book was not the end of the book, the end of the book played and then the book kept playing. The problem is that windows sees "track 1"->"track 2" and Linux (the heart of Android) sees "track 1"->"track 10"->"track 11"->...->"track 2"->"track 20", so it was mostly in order, until the end of the book was track 2 because it wasn't 19 apparently. Stupid fucking sorting algorithms, let's all just agree on standards! Oh wait, you just ignored the RFCs? cool. Let's just use CDs and listen to nothing but the CDs so we can get the audiobooks back on time, I'm not re-writing the Android Kernel. Bon voyage, NPR and news about the baboon running for president!
Then, A biography of Nietzsche by who know which author. His Uber-Mensche (super man) idea of how mankind was rebuilding itself in the imagined image of his "Gods" hardens your heart and doesn't make sense. The idea that you would even want to try sickens you. You just want to understand, not own the world. Screw owning anything, you wanna make things, help people, be someone.
Then, the most audacious pick you could because PBS Space Time on YouTube showed you that you can understand the physics without knowing the math, a book on how string theory works by a guy who actually works on that stuff, way out there past the words and into the Greek symbols for things I don't understand.
Then, I moved to Colorado because I wanted to smoke weed without fearing my record and harassment by the police, and a door opened because tech is a booming market, even in the back room of rinky dink flower shops in a small farming town where you live.
Autismo part II: Redux
be me, 10 years later (24 years old)
You realize that concurrency is not A, but *THE* mental capacity solution to a reduction in time.
You listened to a set of books for fun on the drive to and from your University while you were living with your grandmother, a 45 minuted drive. First, Too Big To Fail, Andrew Sorkin's exhaustive journalistic account of the collateralized-debt-obligation (CDO) securities leverage and insurance, then bubbling and pop-type failure leading up to the week's events in 2008 that cause Lehman, Bear Stern, AIG, and (bank of america, maybe?) into liquidation positions.
You illegally ripped the CDs, not your CDOs, because you're poor. Except you're cash poor because you have $383,000 but your uncle in control hates his life and thinks that's why he works hard. He's a manufacturing infrastructure engineer with a 2 year degree, and that was hard.
So he wants you to hate your life until you get a job too, because that means you'll make a lot of money and be an engineer or something probably. But you already got a job. He made you. He told you that you only get to spend $10 a week on things you don't need unless you get a job and make the money yourself. You like computers and Jobs at the local theme park hurt your back. No good reason, they just want you to stand there to use a computer that you could totally use while sitting down because you're at the end of a buffet and you don't have to touch or move any food.
That job, your love of computers, your family all seem to make you happier and it also makes you ate life even more. At church on Sunday, the Pastor rips into you personally "PORNOGRAPHY IS THE DEVIL", "THINKING ABOUT OTHER THINGS AS IF THEY ARE MORE INTERESTING THAN GOD IS THE DEVIL", "SCIENCE IS EVIL", "PEOPLE WHO QUESTION GOD ARE WORSHIPING SATAN" he shouts through complex analogies that are aimed to keep you from hearing the actual fascism in the words. You're just the idiot savant kid sitting in the back running all of the audio equipment the entire time.
I tried to tell the pastor that he could put the sermons on a format of more dense form like a hard drive in a computer, and back it up to another hard drive, but every few weeks an 8 GB SD card would fill up and we'd just use a new one. THAT'S WRITE, WRITE ONCE, CATALOG DATA IN FLASH STORAGE LIKE A FUCKING NINTENDO, THIS MAN LIVED IN THE DARK AGES IN 2013. Oh, but the kid in the back thinking about how to jail break his iPhone and download the Golden Master release of the first iOS with multitasking, yeah, he's worshiping SATAN by not listening to you repeat the same fear mongering over and over.
Don't get me wrong, I believe in God now, my God, not yours, let's not talk about it right now. Yes, pornography is bad, but not why you think, it's because it's actually bad, like, a psychologist can prove it to you. No, thinking about other things isn't the devil, but thinking about how to make a thing or improve on a thing to make yourself like God, well that is, and I'm looking at you Mark Zuckerberg. Science isn't evil, it's an effort to understand things from first principles that sometimes leads to atomic bombs, that just means that we shouldn't make or use atomic bombs, not "DURR SCIENCE DA DEVIL". And those people questioning God are called lost sheep, great job welcoming them into your church pastor.
Anyway, you got the CDs ripped onto your Android phone and turned in the audio book CDs in time and deleted your copy because you knew there were internet services for libraries to do that and your library just doesn't have one yet. I probably should have told them about that. Your android phone sorted the numbered tracks generated by windows with a slightly out of order algorithm by comparison
You realize numbers are sorted differently by the alphabetic sorting in the file system on an android Samsung Galaxy S3, apparently. I was getting a degree in computer science but couldn't tell this was the case until the end of the book was not the end of the book, the end of the book played and then the book kept playing. The problem is that windows sees "track 1"->"track 2" and Linux (the heart of Android) sees "track 1"->"track 10"->"track 11"->...->"track 2"->"track 20", so it was mostly in order, until the end of the book was track 2 because it wasn't 19 apparently. Stupid fucking sorting algorithms, let's all just agree on standards! Oh wait, you just ignored the RFCs? cool. Let's just use CDs and listen to nothing but the CDs so we can get the audiobooks back on time, I'm not re-writing the Android Kernel. Bon voyage, NPR and news about the baboon running for president!
Then, A biography of Nietzsche by who know which author. His Uber-Mensche (super man) idea of how mankind was rebuilding itself in the imagined image of his "Gods" hardens your heart and doesn't make sense. The idea that you would even want to try sickens you. You just want to understand, not own the world. Screw owning anything, you wanna make things, help people, be someone.
Then, the most audacious pick you could because PBS Space Time on YouTube showed you that you can understand the physics without knowing the math, a book on how string theory works by a guy who actually works on that stuff, way out there past the words and into the Greek symbols for things I don't understand.
Then, I moved to Colorado because I wanted to smoke weed without fearing my record and harassment by the police, and a door opened because tech is a booming market, even in the back room of rinky dink flower shops in a small farming town where you live.
submitted by /u/AspiENTP [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/3c3XwuQ
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Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
###
All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s the conclusion on this study of late night eaters.
Check out the U.S. News article for Dr. Cederquists take on late night eating
Check out this study from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Photo Credit: Going to bed, Putting the small ones to bed, Me: during the day and before sleeping, Market Time, Brand-Aid, Danger.
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain? published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/
0 notes
Text
Does Late-Night Eating Cause Weight Gain?
As the legend goes…
If you’re trying to lose weight, don’t eat right before bed.
The thought is that your metabolism slows down at night to prepare for sleep.
Which means if you snack before bedtime, the food resides in your stomach all night long, and unless you’re a sleepwalker, you won’t burn off your meal and your food turns to fat.
That’s why conventional wisdom advises against eating late at night.
It’s summed up in the quote, “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
Is all this true?
Is ANY of it true?
Great questions. Should people attempting to lose weight limit their late-night eating, and is there science or studies to back this up? After all, we love science here at NF.
Today, we are tackling these questions:
What effect does eating late at night have on our bodies?
Should you eat an early dinner for weight loss?
Is a big breakfast the answer?
Where does intermittent fasting fit into all this?
Let’s begin.
SHOULD YOU EAT LATE AT NIGHT?
To answer our question on whether a late night meal is going to stick to your gut, it’ll be helpful to explore where this advice originates.
It comes down to our circadian rhythm, which tells our bodies what time of day it is. If everything is functioning properly, during the day you will feel alert. At night, when it’s time to wind down and sleep, you’ll start to feel tired.
Think of it as an internal clock that helps prioritize bodily functions. Waking, eating, sleeping, etc.
So what’s this got to do with late night chow?
The argument goes that having food past a certain hour goes against our biological clock. Eating outside of our circadian rhythm means our metabolism might not be in proper working order. Which could lead to fat gain. That’s the gist of the argument against late night eating.
And there might be some evidence it’s true.
Experiments in mice support the hypothesis that eating late at night causes fat gain.[1] If you’re picturing a group of mice arguing over what kind of food to get delivered at midnight, I’m right there with you.[2]
One group ate during normal waking hours. The other, at night, against their normal circadian clock. Everything else remained constant, including their exercise and activity.
And all things being equal, the late night eating mice gained more weight.
These are interesting observations, but do they tell the whole story? Is all of our knowledge around late night eating advice dependent on experimentation with mice?
There are some studies on humans that do show a correlation between late night eating and weight gain.[3] And again, those eating late at night tend to gain more weight than those who don’t.[4]
However, if you’re reading Nerd Fitness, you’re smart. And you know that correlation doesn’t prove causation.
There may be a correlation between wearing a stormtrooper uniform and death, but it doesn’t mean the uniform CAUSES death.
That would be a major defect, like creating an exhaust port that leads straight to your base’s biggest weakness. Oh wait.
Outside of correlation, is there anything physiologically different about eating calories at night versus the day?
DOES LATE NIGHT EATING CAUSE WEIGHT GAIN?
First things first. Let’s talk about your metabolism slowing down at night.
That’s generally what the advice on skipping late night meals rests on. If you eat late, when your metabolism is naturally slowing down (recall the circadian rhythm?), the food is more likely to be stored as fat instead of being burned off.
Yeah, that’s not true.[5]
Your body expends plenty of energy when you sleep!
For example, the process of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) burns quite a bit of energy because our brains are very active during this stage. This is also the stage of sleep where you dream the most. So when you are dreaming of battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, you’re burning calories. Not as much as literally battling a dragon or showing up to school naked, but enough to keep your metabolism engaged.
Also, our bodies do a lot of repair work on our cells, tissue, and muscles at night. All of which requires calories.
Plus, your body needs to do normal things too like breathing, pumping blood, keeping all of your organs functioning, and stealing the blankets from your partner.
When you factor all of this in, your metabolism only slows down about 15% during the night[6]
And even THEN, with this ‘gasp,’ 15% slowdown, it’s not enough to make you more likely to gain fat by eating later at night compared to during the day. So say the researchers at Oregon State University.[7] Granted, researchers at OSU did their studies on monkeys, but their conclusion matches other research on the subject.[8]
Now, to keep things in perspective and put us back on track.
If you look hard enough, you’ll find studies that show eating late at night actually INCREASES your overnight metabolism.[9] After all – your body needs to burn calories to process the calories you just consumed, right?
That TOO makes sense!
So if our metabolism is still running when we sleep, and calories don’t have a greater impact at night, what’s with the correlation between late night eating and weight gain in humans?
Why do people that eat at night tend to gain more weight compared to people that don’t?
MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHEN YOU EAT, IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT
So what’s causing late-night eaters to gain more weight, if it’s not a slow metabolism?
It’s actually a simple answer: eating anything between dinner and bedtime is considered an extra meal.
More meals equals more food, which equals more calories. Which could lead to more weight gain.
That’s right. People who are eating late at night are eating that meal in addition to all of their other meals. They are overeating, and thus, their body is putting on weight. The timing of the meal is irrelevant, it’s total calories consumed!
To reiterate: it’s not some physiological response to food past a certain hour that will cause weight gain. It’s just that those who eat late at night are probably eating more than those who don’t.[10]
If a late night snack helps you eat smaller meals throughout the day, great!
However, more often than not these late night snacks are just extra calories on top of the meals already eaten. Something we do mindlessly with no real intention. And this can be a recipe for disaster.
This is the real concern of late night eating: extra calories consumed. Not that our body’s metabolism slows down to hibernation levels at night. It’s that we are likely not planning on these extra calories at night.
And that’s not all.
There’s also the topic of food choices to consider. The reality is there aren’t as many healthy meal options late at night versus when the sun is out. People who eat late at night might have to depend on delivery like pizza. Or Taco Bell might be the only thing open at 3am. So it might not be the hour, but the food itself that is the concern.
These are foods that are nutritionally deficient, calorically dense, and very easy to mindlessly over consume in mass quantities.
Plus, lots of late night snacks that people eat are likely junk food. As bariatric physician Dr. Caroline Cederquist says, “At midnight, people will rarely make chicken and salad. They will eat ice cream or chips, the high-fat or high-sugar foods that our bodies store so effectively as fat.”[11] This point argues the central problem of late night eating lies with these high-calorie foods, which are easy to overeat, and don’t contain a lot of nutrition. If you eat these types of snacks consistently, weight gain could be the outcome, no matter the time of day you eat them.
This may very well explain the correlation between late night eating and fat gain. Which matches our philosophy here at Nerd Fitness, “You Can’t Outrun Your Fork” (Scope out Rule #4). It also correlates to America’s love of snacks, and America’s obesity problem: I cover this in our article on snacking.
So if you are going to eat late at night, stick to REAL food whenever possible.
Meats, vegetables, fresh fruit, etc. Stay away from processed junk food, which seems to be the real danger of eating before bed. Eating an apple with some almond butter before bed is a lot different than cookies. If you want help adjusting your snacks to REAL food, check out our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. That article will walk you through how to create habits on eating real, natural, nutritious food. Foods you can eat any time of day.
But let’s also be realists here, because I love junk food too. If you want to eat ice cream or have a cookie before bed, go for it! Just PLAN ahead by eating smaller portioned meals earlier in the day, and make up for it the next day by eating a significantly smaller breakfast.
If all this talk on the timing of meals and eating REAL food stresses you out, and you want to be told exactly what to do, we can help!
Our uber-popular 1-on-1 coaching program pairs you with your own Nerd Fitness Coach who will get to know YOU, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develops a plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of the timing of meals and overall diet, to help busy people just like you level up their lives.
Wanna see if we are a good fit for each other? Click on the big box below to schedule a free call! We’d love to talk with you, no matter what.
SHOULD YOU TIME YOUR MEALS?
I want to make one more point. After saying everything I said above, there could be some benefit to planning and restricting the time you eat during the day.
I’m a big fan of scheduled eating times and scheduled fasting times – this is a generally referred to as intermittent fasting.
It’s not a diet per se, but a diet pattern.
I personally only eat calories in an eight-hour window each a day. For example, if I start eating at noon, I’ll eat my last calorie by 8pm. This means no late night snacks for me. This time-restricted eating strategy works as a great way to limit overall caloric intake.
Here’s why: although I eat bigger meals for lunch and dinner, skipping breakfast results in the net effect of “Steve eats less overall.” No snacks, no multiple small meals throughout the day. Just two big meals to fuel my needs.
If you’re looking to lose weight, intermittent fasting could be a strategy for calorie control that works for you. Specifically, if you can’t help but eat late at night for whatever reason, then cutting out breakfast and making lunch the first meal of the day could mitigate a lot of the additional calories you consume later. Now, intermittent fasting isn’t for everybody, and it affects men and women differently, so be sure to read our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting to get the full details. We cover the ins and outs of intermittent fasting, and how to create a practice that works for your situation.
Many NF readers have experienced success with intermittent fasting. After all, it’s one less meal to worry about. You can use the extra time to focus on what your two healthy meals should be, instead of worrying about a bunch of small meals and snacks throughout the day.
If you want to learn more about IF, and download a worksheet to help you get going, you can grab our Beginner’s Guide to Intermittent Fasting FREE when you sign-up in the box below:
Download a free intermittent fasting guide and worksheet!
Complete outline of the Intermittent Fasting Protocol
Worksheets for tracking when you eat and how long you fasted
I identify as a:
Woman
Man
CONCERNS OF LATE NIGHT EATING
I couldn’t end this article without mentioning two possible concerns on late night eating, outside of extra calories and food quality.
I want to talk about how late night eating might disrupt sleep itself.
If you’re staying up late at night to eat, you might be doing this at the expense of going to bed earlier, which could lead to sleep issues. As we cover in our article on sleep, when you’re sleep deprived and tired, your body tends to crave more food. More calories to fuel your exhausted body. And if you’re already staying up later to eat more food, you’re creating a vicious cycle.
Crapola.
As pointed out by science and thermodynamics, losing weight is about burning more calories than you consume. Being exhausted and needing more calories to get through the day makes this much more difficult.
So if you’re eating late at night, make sure that you’re still getting plenty of good shuteye. Don’t stay up all night mindlessly snacking. A well-rested nerd is a happy and healthy nerd.
Also, one last thing: there is some evidence that a late night meal might disrupt the quality of your sleep. [12] This might come back to our circadian rhythm, as a late night meal does seem to have an impact on delaying the stage of REM sleep.
This might be the real danger of late night eating.
Not that the calories will stick to your stomach, but that eating late at night might disrupt the sleepy time you are about to embark on by shifting your body’s priorities to digestion, thus throwing off your circadian rhythm as you prepare for sleep.
So forgo late night eating?
My advice: experiment on yourself. No not like that.
With your food and the timing of your food consumption.
A lot of these studies are at the early stages, and more research needs to be done to reach concrete conclusions on the health impact of the timing of our meals. So:
If a meal before bed helps you skip breakfast the next morning so you can rock your day, do it!
If you notice a late night meal makes you toss and turn at night, try eating a little bit earlier.
I always encourage self-experimentation, and that holds true for the timing of meals. If your life sucks without breakfast, EAT BREAKFAST. If you do better with a good, healthy snack before bed, EAT YOUR LATE NIGHT SNACK.
For me personally, I know that eating too much food directly before hitting the hay leads to a night of tossing and turning without any awesome dreams of me with a jetpack flying around the world.
But, to each their own.
You’re an adult (I assume).
So don’t get so caught up in studies that you ignore what your own body is telling you. Do what works for you – and if eating late at night is causing you to gain weight, cut back on the calories and see if that changes things.
One last important point:
If you can’t help yourself from eating sweets and snacks late at night, then plan for it! Eat smaller dinners and breakfasts, or have one less snack throughout the day. We don’t plan for perfection. We plan for Murphy’s law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And just hoping you stop eating late night food isn’t a strategy. So instead, plan for the worst and set yourself up to succeed even when you succumb to the late night cravings!
That about does it for this article. It’s up to you to decide if late night eating works for you or should be avoided. Either way, the next time you hear someone tell you to eat dinner like a pauper, maybe take it with a grain of salt. Nod politely, and then get back to doing what’s best for you.
Now I want to hear from you!
Do you eat late at night or do you restrict your eating window?
Does a late night snack help you prepare for the next day?
Or does it disrupt your sleep?
Let me know in the comments.
Sweet (or unsweet) dreams!
Steve,
PS: ONE FINAL TIP: if you’re going to eat ice cream late at night, don’t eat it right out of the carton with a spoon. Get a scoop, put it in a bowl, and go sit down. You’ll eat half as much, and hate yourself half as much the next day.
PPS: I’ll wrap up this article by again mentioning our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. If you’re worried about losing weight, and not sure if your late night meals are helping or hurting, we can help! We’ll get to know you, your situation, and your goals, to come up with a plan! Schedule a call with our team to see if it’s a good fit for your situation!
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All photo sources can be found in this footnote right here. [13]
Footnotes ( returns to text)
Check out some studies on mice right here, here, and here.
It would have to be pizza with extra cheese, right?
Check out this study overnight eating and weight gain right here.
Two more studies on weight gain and late night eating here and here.
Check out this study on overnight metabolic rate or this one.
Check out this report in the International Journal of Endocrinology for that statistic.
Check out that report from OSU here.
As quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Dietitians’ Association of Australia came to a similar conclusion as OSU.
Check out this interesting study on the benefits of late night eating.
That’s..
http://bit.ly/2LSO80u
0 notes