Are you a late-night eater or an evening snacker? Here’s why your late eating habits could be having a big impact on your health.
It’s natural for people to wonder or even worry about food timing and meal frequency. How many times a day should I eat? Does it matter if I skip breakfast? Will eating at night make me gain weight?
Whilst there’s no definitive answer to any of these questions, we do know that it’s not a great idea to eat too late at night (or too close to your bedtime). And it’s not about gaining weight!
Why is eating late bad for your health?
Most people think that eating close to bedtime will cause them to gain weight. This simply isn’t true – the only thing that will cause you to gain weight is eating more calories than you burn off. If you need 2000 calories to maintain your weight, you could eat all 2000 of them half an hour before bed. You might have an uncomfortable night’s sleep, but those calories won’t be any more calorific than if you’d eaten them earlier.
What are the risks of eating too late?
So if it’s not weight gain, what are the potential problems with eating too close to your bedtime?
Your circadian rhythm
Our bodies are governed by a 24-hour “body clock” called our circadian rhythm. Anything that throws this off balance will put our health, energy, and mood at risk. And anything that supports our body clock will help us be happier and healthier!
Eating too close to bedtime will impact sleep (which has a knock on effect on the body clock), and having an erratic eating pattern, will affect the circadian rhythm.
Research suggests that our body clocks want us to eat in an 8-12 hour window every day. (1) This will vary from person to person, but try sticking to a 12 hour window to see if you feel any improvements. This might look like 7am-7pm (or whatever your schedule dictates).
Your digestion
One of the most obvious reasons to leave a gap between eating and sleeping is digestion. The calories you eat late at night aren’t suddenly more caloric because of the time of day, but they could be harder to digest. When you go to bed, you are lying down flat and not moving around. Your body digests food best when you are upright and moving.
In addition, if you go to bed on an uncomfortably full stomach you might struggle to sleep well, which will impact your energy, mood, and even your caloric intake the following day.
Your calorie intake
The key to losing weight and bodyfat is appropriate calorie intake. You need to match your calories to your energy needs (“calories in vs calories out”). One of the best ways to do this is to fall into a meal structure that suits your appetite, schedule, and social situation.
If you frequently eat late at night, it might be more difficult to regulate your calories throughout the rest of the day. For example, you might wake up not feeling hungry, and put off eating until lunch time, and then overeat in the afternoon.
Stick to a reasonably structured eating pattern and you will find it easier to control your weight.
Your sleep quality
You are asking a lot of your body by eating and then going to bed. Your digestive system uses a surprising amount of energy to digest food. Keep the two tasks separate by giving your body adequate time to digest the last thing you ate. It can then turn its focus to falling asleep and entering into a proper, restful sleep cycle.
As a result, you’ll wake up feeling rested, energised, and in a good mood – which will help you not want to stay up snacking for another night.
Your energy and mood
Proper digestion and sleep are major factors in helping you face each day with energy, focus, and a positive mindset. This has a huge knock on effect on your productivity, activity levels, and healthy choices.
By simply not eating so late at night, you could sleep better, have better gut health, and make healthier choices about food and fitness every day. How about that?
What time should you stop eating?
There is no definitive answer to this, but I advise leaving at least 2 hours between your last mouthful of food and going to bed. It’s also a good idea to stick to a 12-hour eating “window”. If you eat breakfast at 7am, this means eating your final meal or snack at 7pm.
If that’s not quite doable because of work, training or family, give it 30-60 minutes wiggle room. But do your best to stick to a schedule. Your body will thank you.
5 ways to stop late night eating
1. Eat regular meals throughout the day and make sure they are filling enough (lean protein, vegetables, whole grains etc)
2. Don’t make a habit of eating something after dinner – you shouldn’t need to
3. Avoid keeping “trigger food” snacks in the house (or put them out of sight)
4. Brush your teeth after your last meal of the day
5. Drink herbal tea to replace your snack habit
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References used in todays blog:
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5483233/
