Truth on Tuesday

Will eating after 9:00 pm make me fat?

Let me start by answering your question with a question: What are you eating after 9:00 pm- and more importantly, how much? If you're one of those people who tend to skip breakfast, get too busy to eat lunch, and end up famished by dinner you may want to rethink your meal patterning. 


Although research has yet to show that the time of day you eat influences the amount of weight you gain or lose, many peoples’ late-night eating patterns result in the consumption of extra calories and subsequent weight gain. Late-night snackers often eat when they do not because they are actually hungry, but out of habit, or because they are bored, tired, or stressed  (1).

In extreme cases, this can lead to Night eating syndrome (NES), which is characterized by a time-delayed pattern of eating relative to sleep, where most food is consumed in the evening and night. NES diagnosis has three main criteria: no appetite for breakfast, consumption of more than 50% of daily calories after 9:00 pm and sleep difficulties at least 3 nights a week (2).  It should also be noted that NES is typically accompanied by frequent awakenings at night, associated with abnormal circadian rhythms, and typically involves  conscious episodes of compulsive ingestion of food (3).


So, while there's not magical hour when your body decides when to stop using for food energy and instead turns everything into fat, you should aim to get majority of your calories in earlier in the day. Here are a few tips to keep your energy and blood sugar levels stable throughout the day so that you're not coming home from work tired, famished, and ready to devour your pantry. 


Start with Breakfast

• Eat something. If you're not a breakfast person, it's time you became one.  Numerous research studies have shown that people who eat breakfast tend to weigh less.  Also, if you think about it logically, you're body hasn't gotten any form of fuel since dinner the night before.  How can you expect to start your day alert and full of energy without some sort form of nutrition to kick start your morning?
• What do eat:
• Aim for a mix of carbohydrates, protein and fat.  Carbohydrates are your brain's primary source of energy, protein will add substance to your meal and a little bit of healthy fat will help round out your meal and boost the satiety factor
• Ideas:
• Oatmeal w/skim milk, blueberries, and 1 tablespoon chopped walnuts
• 1 Egg + 1 Egg white, 1 slice of wheat bread w/1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• Smoothie: 1/2 cup lowfat milk, 1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt, 1 banana, 1 cup blueberries, & 1 tbsp. flaxseed oil

Don't skip Lunch

• Unfortunately when the work day gets busy lunch often gets taken out of the equation. Skipping meals is a never a good idea, especially if you are trying to lean out or lose weight.  You'll end up making up for those missed calories later in the day and likely it won't be the healthiest of options
• Skipping meals can also cause your blood sugar to dip too low, making you feel sluggish, and you may have trouble concentrating at work. 
• Goal: don't longer than 4 hours without eating.  If you have to take a late lunch, have a snack in between breakfast and lunch.  Here are some ideas:
• Light string cheese & an apple
• 1 Tablespoon of peanut butter & whole wheat crackers
• Lowfat Greek Yogurt w/fruit

Go lighter on Dinner

• Back to what I said about aiming to get more energy in at the beginning of the day- think about how much energy do you need to get through all of the meetings, emails, and other stressors at work and at home. A lot, right? Now, how much energy do you need to lay down and go to bed at night? Not as much.  So take calories for what they are- energy to get your through your hectic day.
• Sometimes it can take a while to adjust to a different meal schedule, but you'll notice that if you eat a good balanced breakfast & lunch, you will be less hungry when dinner rolls around
• Worst case scenario, if you do end up eating at 9:00 (or even 10:00 or 11:00 if that's how you roll), keep the meal light- fill half your plate with non-starchy vegetables, 1/4 of your plate with lean protein, and 1/4 of your plate with a complex carbohydrate light a sweet potato or brown rice. 

1) Wyatt HR, Grunwald GK, Mosca CL, Klem ML, Wing RR, Hill JO. Long-term weight loss and breakfast in subjects in the national weight control registry. Obesity Research . 2002;10:78-82.               

2) Colles, S., Dixon, J., & O'Brien, P. (2007). Night eating syndrome and nocturnal snacking: association with obesity, binge eating and psychological distress. International Journal of Obesity, 31(11), 1722-1730.

3) Milano, W., De Rosa, M., Milano, L. & Capasso, A. (2012). Night eating syndrome: an overview. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmocology, 64, 2-10.