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)

Comments

Your source was really clear and did a great job addressing the claim. I also appreciated how you pointed out the conflicting variables it added depth and made your response feel more thoughtful and well-rounded. That said, it would have been helpful if you had explained some of those variables a bit more. As a reader, it would make it easier to fully understand what you were referring to and follow your reasoning better. Great effort overall!

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.

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I really liked how you utilized the article in order to debunk the claim. I automatically would also assume the article wasn’t accurate, and after reading the article, it made me also believe the claim is wrong even more.

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Your source was clear and helped respond to this claim and I liked that you highlighted the validity of your response with mentioning the conflicting variables providing a more sophisticated response to this claim, but I would have also liked if you explained some of these variables in your response so as a viewer, I could better understand what you meant in your response.

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This argument does not yet have enough information to be meaningful. You have essentially pasted a quote and link but it would be so much more impactful if you added more information and original thought.

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.

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Great response! I really like the Penn Medicine source you used as it has a lot of information. I like how you talked about the specific evidence of what hormone stimulates your eating. I think if you put what study Harvard did to find that outcome it would help to understand how they came to that conclusion.

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I really like how this response expands on the ways it is possible there may be a correlation on why your body reacts differently if you eat food later in the day. The sources that you used are very reputable source to inform us about the this information further. Harvard Health also touched on the fact that having an occasional late night snack wouldn't hurt but encouraged you try to not make that a habit.

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This was an excellent explanation of the Penn Medicine article, and I have definitely learned something new about the initial claim. Something not mentioned in the article that I would like to know is how much this weight gain is actually a factor, as currently they could be exaggerating the effect by just saying "weight gain" rather than specifying how much weight the participants in the study gained.

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!

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I really liked your response. You were straight to the point with your evidence and gave some information of what the study was and who it was done on. I did some research and I found that the more calories one might consume that lead to weight gain are from these different factors like "age, sex, sleep duration, and timing, eating more frequently, later timing of the last meal, and a shorter duration between last meal and sleep onset" (NIH). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25439026/

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

Answer 6

While this claim was able to be traced back to the original sources and verified from the linked article, the source itself was not guaranteed the most trustworthy and valid. The author of the article was indeed specialized in publishing diet and nutrition-related content, and the published time was only about 7 years ago. However, this specific article referenced Alisa Rumsey, the founder of a diet program. Her program contained information and promotions for participating and purchasing their diet plans, which seemed like a commercial and business site. Did Alisa make the statement out of scientific facts or it was just another way to promote her name and business? According to Harvard Health Publishing, "It's not enough to think about what you eat to maintain a healthy weight. When you eat — the time of day — is also important, according to a small randomized controlled trial". This article was written by Heidi Godman, an award-winning medical reporter and the executive of Harvard Health Letter. Her name itself along with "Harvard" was way more convincing than Alisa's. Furthermore, this source also mentioned the experiment details such as "Harvard researchers asked 16 overweight or obese people to test two different meal schedules with identical diets...During the study, scientists measured participants' appetite-regulating hormones, body temperatures, calorie expenditure, and fat cells". These stats reported by Harvard researchers provided strong evidence for their claim and statement. In summary, while the claim could be partially true, the source being referenced did not have enough authority to confirm the fact. 

source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/harvard-study-curb-late-night-eating-to-stave-off-weight-gain

Answer 7

Claim: Does eating late at night cause weight gain?

Harvard conducted a study and found that "Eating later in the day increased participants' hunger, decreased the number of calories they burned, and promoted fat storage. Over time, those effects could lead to weight gain. So while it won't hurt to have an occasional late supper, try not to make it a habit." (Godman, 2023) Eating later in the day does cause weight gain but in the long run.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/harvard-study-curb-late-night-eating-to-stave-off-weight-gain

Answer 8

In searching for research and collecting other information on this topic I have looked into many studies, opinions, and research on this controversial topic. While some think to loose weight it doesn't matter when you eat as long as your in a calorie deficit while others think eating late makes you store more fat as you don't burn as many calories sleeping. What it seems through my research is that these both may be true for weight lose but eating at night could make it harder.

In a Harvard study in which the study conducted of 16 people on a weight loss plan, where half ate less calories but meals later in the day, and the other 8 ate later at night it showed that the ones who ate earlier showed quicker and more significant weight loss. Below is some evidence of this direct from the source. " during the study scientists measured participants appetite-regulating hormones, body temperatures, calorie expenditure, and fat cells. Eating later in the day increased participants hunger decreased the number of calories they burned, and promoted fat storage. Over time, those effects lead to weight gain. In looking at other sources there was similar feedback in a source from the American journal of clinical nutrition similar evidence was found in late eating and correlation to poor metabolic rates which made it harder to burn a large amount of calories in comparison.

Overall this was more of a question than a claim but many people have posed this idea as a claim and there is solid evidence through my analysis to why many think this is true. Just in my analysis it seems to be true that eating later at night could lead weight gain and if trying to loose weight could make it harder. But there is also evidence that proves it doesn't matter when you eat, if your eating a lot you will gain weight and if you eat less you will loose as said in a article (from EatThis.com) " it's the extra calories you eat that causes weight gain" which somewhat debunks parts of this claim/question/argument.

Answer 9

The answer to this question is mostly true but there are also other factors that lead to this. A Harvard study which I came across talks about giving 16 overweight people two different meal schedules. They found out that "Eating later in the day increased participants' hunger, decreased the number of calories they burned, and promoted fat storage" (Harvard Health). I also found that people who eat closer to their bedtime are able to consumer more calories. More calories consumed can lead to weight gain depending if you go over your daily caloric intake. To support that The National Institute of Health found that after doing a study on 59 participants "Results suggest that later relative timing of meals, particularly eating close to sleep, could lead to weight gain due to a greater number of eating occasions and higher total daily caloric intake" .