Does Eating Late at Night Cause Weight Gain?

Question

There's actually very little evidence that connects eating late in the day with weight gain, says Alissa Rumsey, MS, RD, and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "It's the extra calories you eat, not the time you eat them, that causes weight gain," Rumsey explains in regards to debunking the idea that eating late at night slows your metabolism. (From EatThis.com)

Answer 1

CLAIM: EATING LATE CAUSES WEIGHT GAIN

Penn Medicine writes that their "team found that when participants ate later, compared to the daytime condition, weight increased." So it is partially true, but their are conflicting variables. 

Link to study: https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2017/june/timing-meals-later-at-night-can-cause-weight-gain-and-impair-fat-metabolism

Comments

I like that you also came to the conclusion as me, even though I am not sure of the evidence supporting it.

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I really like how your answer was direct and to the point, also how it included the claim. However, I feel like you could've gone in more detail about Penn State and their findings, and maybe see of there was another source to compare it too? I found this one from Harvard University (https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/harvard-study-curb-late-night-eating-to-stave-off-weight-gain) where their findings claimed that eating later in the day increases hunger, leading to more foods being consumed and ultimately, more weight gain.

Answer 2

While eating late might not physically cause you to gain more weight, the timing might have effects that lead to weight gain. According to Penn Medicine, daytime eating peaks you hormones ghrelin (stimulating appetite) earlier and leptin (stimulating satiation) later. This means daytime eaters who received cues to eat earlier were satiated longer, indicating that people who ate at a later time felt more hungry, leading to binge and overeating. Additionally, Penn found that late eaters metabolized fewer lipids (fatty compound) and more carbs, reflecting negative metabolic levels. I also found a study done by Harvard Health that stated eating later increased people's hunger, decreased the calories they burned, and furthered fat storage.

Comments

I found this fact check very insightful, and the sources you used (Penn Medicine and Harvard Health) are very well-known and trusted for information specifically regarding health. I would say that including a direct quote rather than paraphrasing both sources would further emphasize the truth of the argument you are making. Overall, nice job!

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The article I researched also covered that later eating is often associated with stimulation and not actual hunger.  Obviously, when the body eats more than needed for no apparent reason, weight is going to come with it.

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This is a very good response. Your use of two reputable university sources, especially those highly regarded as Harvard  and Penn . You explain why the claim is true as well as providing other information that would interest the reader including the effects of daytime eating vs nightitme.

Answer 3

The claim that eating late at night can cause weight gain is partially true. A study published on the Harvard Gazette reports that people who were told to eat late at night showed signs of a slowing metabolism. However, this study was only performed on five women, meaning that the results could be very different if they tried this experiment on a bigger and wider variety of people. 

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/10/study-looks-at-why-late-night-eating-increases-obesity-risk/

Comments

I thought your response was fact driven. You added some good backing information by showing what is included in the Harvard study. I also like how you showed that the results could have been different if it was done on a larger crowd of people. I did some digging into this topic, and I came to a similar response as you that it depends a lot on the person it's true that eating at anytime of the day is adding calories to your caloric intake but the thing that I learned was that not eating for more than 8 hours puts your body Into ketosis so its interesting to think maybe eating at night can help prevent wight loss for those trying to gain weight. Overall I thought you did a good job on this factcheck!

Answer 4

This is true, but there is more to it. According to the National Institute of Health, or the NIH, concluded that "Night eating was associated with increased all-cause, cancer and diabetes mortality; however, reduction of excess mortality risk was observed when eating before [11pm] or low-dietary-density foods" (NIH). The quality of food is a major factor, as foods like fruit or vegetables won't have as much of an effect on the subject as high-dietary-density foods, like chips or candy, would. According to Harvard Health Publishing, eating later in the day, increases a subjects hunger, increased overall calories burned and fat storage. In conclusion, if you have "healthier" food late at night, you may not gain weight, but the danger is within it becoming a habit.

Comments

Your fact check was short and sweet which told me all the information I needed to know about night eating. However, I would like to add that night eating is often associated with high-calorie foods such as candy, cookies, and chips which might cause an uptick in weight gain. Also, most people eat dessert after dinner (before or after 22:00) which contains high-calorie foods. By using the evidence you found, you can create your conclusions which can then be back by the research you found. Great job overall!!

Answer 5

The general answer to this question seems to be that it is true most of the time. The article I dove into shared how it is usually noticed that late night eating actually has little to with hunger and more to do with border, bad habits; however, the concept of calories in/calories out suggests that regardless, eating a lot at night is asking for weight gain, since any calories that are excessive will cause weight gain. Though more research needs to be done to come to a direct conclusion, your metabolism also slows down at night and can mean it is more likely for weight gain to occur with eating late.

https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/diet-truth-myth-eating-night-causes-weight-gain