Is it true that eating at midnight makes you fat?
Eating late at night may have become a habit for some people, especially for people who often come home late at night or for people who are used to staying up late. Sleeping late at night can sometimes make you feel hungry and want to eat. Many people say that if you don’t want to be fat, you shouldn’t eat if it’s near midnight. However, is it true?
Can a late night meal make you fat?
Nutritionists argue that calories are calories, no matter when you eat them. What causes weight gain is the intake of calories that is more than the calories burned by the body.
As reported from WashingtonPost, Kelly Allison of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Center for Weight and Eating Disorders says that many studies on nighttime eating involve animals, night shift workers, and people who have night eating syndrome. These studies tend to show that eating at night causes the body to store calories from these foods in the form of fat rather than burn them, thereby leading to weight gain.
There are many reasons behind people eating at night, either because they are hungry, or because they just want to vent boredom or stress. Many also do not realize that they eat a lot of food at night because they are too absorbed in eating while playing games, surfing, or watching TV / movies. Usually the foods chosen are those that contain high calories, such as snack in packaging, biscuits, chocolate, or candy.
What happens to the body when you eat at midnight?
As reported from health.com, Satchin Panda, Professor at the Regulatory Biology Laboratory of The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California explains what happens to the body when the body receives food intake at midnight. At night, the body actually burns fat while sleeping. Glycogen in the body is converted into glucose and released into the bloodstream to keep blood sugar levels normal during sleep. When the glycogen reserves are depleted, the liver will burn fat cells for energy. It takes the body several hours to carry out this process until the glycogen reserves are used up. So, if you eat late at night and in the morning you also have breakfast, your body doesn’t get a chance to burn fat because you’ve started replenishing your glycogen stores again.
Panda also adds that not eating for at least 12 hours at night can give your body time to burn off all of its glycogen stores as well as fat every night.
Maybe that’s why when you often eat at midnight close to bedtime, you can gain weight. In addition, the activities you do at night are of course very little, so if you eat before bed, your body does not immediately convert the food you eat into energy, but will store it as an energy reserve.
What are the consequences if you eat late at night?
Eating at night and close to bedtime can cause indigestion as well as sleep disturbances. Some of the negative effects caused when you eat at midnight and immediately go to sleep, including:
1. Gastric acid disorders
Acid reflux, aka heartburn or GERD occurs when stomach acid rises into the esophagus after eating and causes a burning or burning sensation around the chest. Sleeping after eating can trigger this to happen. To prevent acid reflux, it is best not to eat spicy foods that contain high fats and acids at night.
The risk of GERD is especially higher in people with asthma. Sontag Research, et al. (2004) on 261 people with asthma and 218 people without asthma showed that participants who had asthma and had a habit of eating before bed had symptoms. Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD) with a higher frequency, such as coughing and shortness of breath, compared with participants without asthma. The habit of eating before bed has a serious impact on people with asthma.
2. Weight gain
What causes weight gain is the type of food eaten at night, and the portions. At night, people usually tend to choose foods that are high in carbohydrates and fat, with portions that are not small. This is what causes weight gain.
3. Insomnia
Too much eating at night can cause insomnia. Consumption of drinks containing alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime can also cause insomnia.
What time should the last dinner be?
If you are losing weight, it’s best if you eat dinner by 8 o’clock at the latest and try to eat 3 hours before bed. Going to bed immediately after eating can cause stomach acid to rise and cause heartburn, as described above. It’s best to avoid spicy and fatty foods to eat at night so you don’t experience them heartburn. Also, limit your consumption of caffeinated drinks so you can sleep longer and be more comfortable.
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