# Is eating late at night really bad for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2005, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210 "2005-07-26T13:03:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/21 "2011-06-15T19:40:31Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Never been to Spain, but I’ve heard it’s the custom to have dinner late at night there. Is **Nava** in the house? > > Think—How many fat Spaniards have you [ever seen](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=spaniards&cp=9&safe=off&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&biw=1066&bih=544&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi)? (Don’t give Sancho Panza as a cite; he’s fictional.) I’m envisioning a sequel to _French Women Don’t Get Fat_—title it something like… _Spanish Women Don’t Get Fat Either, and They Even Have Dinner Late at Night! Ha! Bet You Can’t Top That, France!_ Yes, dinner is eaten at 9 at the earliest. But something to note is that Spaniards also go to bed later (at midnight or one on a weekday and sometimes not until past dawn the following day if it is the weekend and time to party). Spaniards are a slender bunch overall. I think there are a number of factors contributing to that though, including routine exercise in the form of walking everywhere, cigarette smoking, small portion sizes, and tendency not to snack or eat heavy desserts. Oh, yes, and edited to add: Dinner in Spain is a very light meal, sometimes not much more than a snack. Lunch is the big meal of the day. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/22 "2011-06-15T19:42:28Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > No need to control for either of those in order to answer the OP’s question. Why not? It looks like the study wasn’t controlling for those, which renders their results pretty much worthless. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/23 "2011-06-15T19:50:13Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > bad science. No; more like general rules-of-thumb, which aren’t going to be one-size-fits-all, especially if you know you’re an outlier. If you go to sleep 3 hours later than the average American (according to the National Sleep Foundation \*, the typical American goes to sleep just after 11pm on weeknights), then, obviously, “don’t eat after 8pm” doesn’t necessarily apply to you – or, you could just extrapolate it to “don’t eat after 11pm”. - link to their Sleep in America Poll results (PDF): [http://www.sleepfoundation.org/sites/default/files/nsaw/NSF%20Sleep%20in%20%20America%20Poll%20-%20Summary%20of%20Findings%20.pdf](http://www.sleepfoundation.org/sites/default/files/nsaw/NSF%20Sleep%20in%20%20America%20Poll%20-%20Summary%20of%20Findings%20.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/24 "2011-06-15T20:03:51Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > If you go to sleep 3 hours later than the average American (according to the National Sleep Foundation \*, the typical American goes to sleep just after 11pm on weeknights), then, obviously, “don’t eat after 8pm” doesn’t necessarily apply to you – or, you could just extrapolate it to “don’t eat after 11pm”. or they could say dont eat within 3 hours of your bed time, or in the case of the often quoted 64oz of water per day thing they could just say “We are talking out of our asses right now” when they publish results saying dont eat after 8 its plain old bad science, does everyone in the study go to bed at 11? or is there some magical thing that happens after 8 causing humans to put on fat? I could also be off here, the study could be legit and it could be whoever is reporting on it thats a total moron…probably the most likely ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/25 "2011-06-15T20:09:44Z")
> [@Critical1](#): > > or they could say dont eat within 3 hours of your bed time, or in the case of the often quoted 64oz of water per day thing they could just say “We are talking out of our asses right now” I suspect a lot of it is attempting to give people (who are generally lazy) an easy-to-follow rule-of-thumb that requires no math or thinking on their part. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/26 "2011-06-15T20:18:23Z")
If you eat late at night, the energy will almost certainly be converted into fat overnight since there’s not the opportunity to burn it off. When you wake the next morning, your body does not want to burn that fat it made last night. Your body will tell you you’re hungry rather than burn the fat reserves. So you end up eating a normal breakfast. Essentially, the food you eat late at night is archived and your body is reluctant to pull from the archives. Your body will tell you to eat new food. Theoretically you can look at calories in/calories out, but the body has a strong perpensity to make you eat new food instead of burning fat stores. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/27 "2011-06-15T20:27:00Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > If you eat late at night, the energy will almost certainly be converted into fat overnight since there’s not the opportunity to burn it off. When you wake the next morning, your body does not want to burn that fat it made last night. Your body will tell you you’re hungry rather than burn the fat reserves. So you end up eating a normal breakfast. > > Essentially, the food you eat late at night is archived and your body is reluctant to pull from the archives. Your body will tell you to eat new food. Theoretically you can look at calories in/calories out, but the body has a strong perpensity to make you eat new food instead of burning fat stores. It was this commonly held belief that initiated the OP (almost 6 years ago). And I believe it was debunked a long time ago. Now, the sleep issue is different (and relevant since sleep does indeed affect health). ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/28 "2011-06-15T20:27:42Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > If you eat late at night, the energy will almost certainly be converted into fat overnight since there’s not the opportunity to burn it off. First: This is exactly what this thread is arguing about. Simply re-posting the statement as fact without a cite doesn’t help. Second: Exercise is a very small part of total calorie burn, for most healthy folks only a few hundred out of the 1500-2500 or so calories burned in a day. The rest of the “calorie burn” is just the normal metabolic processes of the body, which continue even during the night. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/29 "2011-06-15T21:20:08Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > If you eat late at night, the energy will almost certainly be converted into fat overnight since there’s not the opportunity to burn it off. . . Agh. Okay. Does _anyone_ have any relevant info - facts and such, you know - about how fast X piece of food is converted into fat? ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/30 "2011-06-16T01:40:31Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Why not? It looks like the study wasn’t controlling for those, which renders their results pretty much worthless. Your post is pretty much worthless. Did you even read the OP? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/31 "2011-06-16T03:46:30Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Your post is pretty much worthless. Did you even read the OP? Are you referring to the fact that I didn’t notice it was a zombie thread? Because I can’t see how my post is ‘worthless’ (bit rude for GQ, that) if I’m pointing out that a cite that supposedly answers the OP doesn’t actually do so. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/32 "2011-06-16T04:06:20Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > Are you referring to the fact that I didn’t notice it was a zombie thread? Because I can’t see how my post is ‘worthless’ (bit rude for GQ, that) if I’m pointing out that a cite that supposedly answers the OP doesn’t actually do so. YES IT DOES. Nothing could be more obvious. Please re-read the OP and my response to it. ---
**Author:** ![ClevelandProud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@ClevelandProud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClevelandProud)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/33 "2011-06-16T04:11:50Z")
Dr. Oz will respond … Eating late will not cause you to gain weight, unless it is your fourth meal of the day (i.e., extra calories). ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/34 "2011-06-16T04:39:05Z")
> [@ClevelandProud](#): > > Dr. Oz will respond … > > Eating late will not cause you to gain weight, unless it is your fourth meal of the day (i.e., extra calories). That raises a valid point in that the OP says they are having their dinner at that time - not late night snacks. Presumably that is their only dinner of the day. A lot of the nuggets of information we can find about “eating late” refer more accurately to “snacking”, as in adding another mealtime to the day right before bed, even though some do seem to point to the time between eating and sleeping as their only basis. The OP indicates no breakfast, lunch at 12:30 pm and dinner at 10:30 pm, bedtime at 11:30 PM. With no breakfast, and no meals between 12:30 and 10:30, that leaves huge portions of the day with no food. A study about weight gain from eating late night snacks after 8 PM probably has very little bearing on the OP and their exact circumstances. I don’t pretend to know, but what they eat in those 2 daily meals is almost certainly more important overall, than what time they eat them, even if there is some link between weight gain and eating shortly before bedtime. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/35 "2011-06-16T06:48:58Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > YES IT DOES. Nothing could be more obvious. > > Please re-read the OP and my response to it. No, it’s not obvious at all. The study didn’t control for the amount of calories consumed, making it worthless when it comes to studying weight gain. You’d be better off explaining what you mean than shouting at me and calling my posts worthless. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/36 "2011-06-16T07:13:58Z")
I’ve also never found that eating breakfast helped me lose weight. All it did was add on calories. I never ate less later or felt hunger at a later time than normal. (I usually get up and maybe having something tiny after an hour if my stomach asks for it, but am not usually hungry til 11.) ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/37 "2011-06-16T11:08:31Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > YES IT DOES. Nothing could be more obvious. > > Please re-read the OP and my response to it. As per the study you yourself posted: > [@](#): > > Late sleepers consumed more calories at dinner and after 8:00 PM, had higher fast food, full-calorie soda and lower fruit and vegetable consumption. So they didn’t control for number of calories contained and makeup of the diet. And **of course** if late sleepers eat more high-calorie junk food than early sleepers, they’ll gain more weight. It seems to me that the early and late sleepers in that study actually eat dinner at the same time, except that the late sleepers then snack on junk food during the evening because they get hungry. This is a completely different situation from someone eating dinner late and then promply going to bed. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/38 "2011-06-16T13:57:49Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Sorry to disagree I eat basically one meal a day and have a great body. It IS calories in and calories out. All this metabolism stuff only refers to tiny amounts. > > Did you notice the part in the study quoted > > MAY?? What does that mean. MAY can also mean MAY NOT. This isn’t a study it’s a guess. I cannot agree more. It is so simple, you want to lose weight? STOP FUCKIN’ EATING! All this nonsense about diet and time of day is a load of hooey. Chain your fridge shut if you must. if you sit around all day on the internet, and most of us do, you don’t need 3 big meals a day. I am not 16 years old any more. One small meal a day feels great. I have lost over 50 pounds in the last 2 years and my doctor actually told me to eat more. I asked him how often he gets to say that to his patients and he replied “Not too much.” Sorry about the rant. I’m done, please continue. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/39 "2011-06-16T14:35:10Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > No, it’s not obvious at all. The study didn’t control for the amount of calories consumed, making it worthless when it comes to studying weight gain. The number of calories consumed might be relevant if the OP had asked “WHY is eating late at night bad for you?”, but that’s not what was asked. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210/40 "2011-06-16T16:05:11Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Never been to Spain Did you kinda like the music? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-eating-late-at-night-really-bad-for-you/314210.md?page=1)