is there a downside to eating late at night,besides getting crumbs in your bed? hey there science cravers, julian here fordnews. a lot of diet fads are very specific about what you should eat, but hardly anyof them talk about when you should eat. that’s because for years now the conventional wisdomhas basically been that the overall number of calories you eat vs how many you burn iswhat’s important.
does salad diet really work, but a few studies have challenged this idea.one in 2013 published in the international journal of obesity followed 420 obese or overweightadults who were trying to lose weight over 20 weeks. those who ate their largest mealbefore 3pm on average lost almost 2 kg more than those who ate after, even if caloricintake and amount of exercise was the same.
but why should that be the case? it’s possiblethe same calorie may be treated differently depending on where your body is in it’scircadian rhythm. yes the 24 hour cycle that we usually just associate with our sleep schedulealso has an effect on how our bodies absorb and digest food. so eating out of our normalrhythm can contribute to weight gain according to kelly allison of the university of pennsylvaniaschool of medicine’s center for weight and eating disorders. wow that is one bloatedtitle. so what’s causing us to eat out of our regularrhythms? society, man. the way we work has caused a sort of social jet lag, where thetime we have available to eat doesn’t match the time it would be most ideal to eat. we’reskipping breakfast more, and our meal times
are becoming irregular as we focus on gettingwork done or picking up the kids from school. we may actually be intentionally fightingthe circadian rhythm, when it causes cortisol and adrenaline to drop off around 3 pm. tostave off the sleepiness some of us indulge in something high in sugar or fat. accordingto pamela peeke, an assistant professor at the university of maryland school of medicine,this will raise our insulin levels and we’ll crave sugar later. our circadian rhythm is at odds with our modernlifestyle in other ways too. when we first evolved food wasn’t readily available inrefrigerators when we woke up. so it’s possible that as the day progresses, the food we eatis more apt to turn into fat so the next day
we have a convenient reserve of energy anddon’t have to worry about our first meal. that’s the hypothesis of steven shea, directorof the oregon institute of occupational health sciences. shea also noticed in his researchthat people tend to be hungrier later at night, possibly as part of this evolutionary adaptation.combine that with the fact that since artificial light we stay up later than ever and now haveready access to food, and the result is some people can’t resist a late night bite. furthermore, if you are grabbing food lateat night, you’re more likely to make an unhealthy choice. you might do it out of convenience,because it’s easier to grab a bag of chips than make a salad, or you might do it outof mental exhaustion. if you’ve spent the
whole day on your best dietary behavior, lateat night you’re more willing to let yourself slip, or even reward yourself with somethingfatty, salty, sweet, and delicious. even the researchers who study this admitthat chrononutrition is an underexplored topic, with few studies done so far and many of themrelying on mice. while the studies we’ve cited point to a link between late day eatingand weight gain, plenty of others support the orthodox view that net calorie count isthe most important factor. once again more research is needed. i hope it involves cake. if you love food science and food in generalclick here now to check out our friends over at eater.
have you tried shifting your caloric intake toearlier in the day? how did that work out for you?
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