They say you gain weight if you eat at night, but if you stay awake longer and are hungry?

Question

If you eat supper at, let's say, 6 and you stay up until 12... what happens if you get hungry around 9? Won't your body use the calories and burn them by 12 and then you'll go to bed hungry?

I'm a little confused about this eating at night thing. I understand the difference if you eat at night RIGHT before bed, but what about the scenario mentionned?

Thx a mill.

One more thing --- So if you are awake longer, you will need to eat more to have energy... so if originally you ate 2000 cals per day, in staying up longer is it possible that your body could require 2500 per day... depending? Your body requires more energy the more you use it up... so? Thx both of you guys, btw! I hope you check back and answer this question!

Answer 1

Nutritionist and dietitians (the ones who update their knowledge) no longer advise doing that because it doesnt matter what time of the day you eat - as long as you dont consume more calories a day than spend during the day you are not gona gain weight.
body needs 50cal/hour just for basic functioning (like when in coma) so if you sleep 8 hours at night your body burns at least 400cal.
its all about calories in VS calories out.

Answer 2

There's nothing wrong with eating at night, or right before bed. To prevent muscle loss some people even drink protein shakes right before bed.
Your body doesn't run on a 24 hour clock... your body is constantly burning calories, even while you sleep. It's not accurate to say that if you eat right before you sleep, your body instantly stores it as fat. If anything, your body uses those calories you consume before you go to bed as it recovers, grows and heals itself, which is what your body does while you are sleeping. Eating 500 calories at 8am is no different than eating 500 calories at 8pm.... your body uses it the same way. It's the calorie decifit you create that determines whether or not your body stores food as fat... not what time of the day you eat it...

EDIT - response to additional question
Not exactly. You will always have energy, and it depends how much longer you are staying up. If it's just a few more hours it doesn't really matter. But if you are planning on staying up all night, you should still be putting something nutritional into your body every 3 hours like you would regularly throughout the day. If you don't consume anymore calories, let's say after you consume 2000, and you are staying up, your body will become catabolic and your metabolism will slow down... meaning your body will draw calories from your storages to feed itself...

Basic rule of thumb is eat something every three hours to keep your metabolism up and to maintain.

Answer 3

Hi Xdevs,
The assertion about not eating after 6PM is one of the most popular myths. You body is still burning calories even when you sleep (due to your resting metabolic rate).

If your last meal of the day is at 6 PM, and your first meal the next day is at 7AM, then you would have gone 13 hours without eating and would be very deep in starvation mode.

Although everyone is in starvation mode after a night's sleep, being in starvation mode for a longer period will slow your metabolism that much more.

The bottom line is that if you are hungry after 6 PM, then eat something. Also, the only reason for not eating right before bed time is possible disruption of your sleep pattern.

P.S. That is an excellent answer by Corey.

Answer 4

you can eat whenever at night if your daily calorie allowance allows it. Like if you're shooting for 2000 calories a day, and have only had 1500, then you have room for a snack if you're hungry. If you don't eat, you'll be more likely to eat junk food later on or consume it during breakfast