Is it true that midnight eating makes you fat?

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Midnight eating may have become a habit for some people, especially for people who often come home late at night or for people who are used to staying up late. Sleeping late sometimes makes you feel hungry and want to eat. Many people say that if you don't want to be fat you shouldn't eat if it's near midnight. However, is that really true?

Can midnight eating make fat?

Nutritionists argue that calories are calories, no matter when you eat. What causes weight gain is more calorie intake than calories burned by the body.

As reported by Washington Post, Kelly Allison of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders said that many studies on nighttime meals involving animals, night shift workers, and people who have night eating syndrome. These studies tend to show that eating at night makes the body store calories from the food in the form of fat rather than burning it, thus causing weight gain.

Many reasons behind people eating at night, can be because they are hungry, can also because just want to vent boredom or stress. Many also did not realize that he had eaten a lot of food at night because he was too absorbed in eating while playing games, surfing, or watching TV / movies. Usually the food chosen is high in calories, such as snackin packaging, biscuits, chocolate, or candy.

What happens to the body if you eat midnight?

As reported by health.com, Satchin Panda, Professor at Regulatory Biology Laboratory at The Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, explains what happens to the body when the body receives food intake at midnight. At night, your body burns fat during sleep. Glycogen in the body is converted into glucose and released into the bloodstream to keep blood sugar levels normal during sleep. When the glycogen reserves run out, the liver will burn fat cells to become energy. The body takes several hours to carry out the process until the glycogen reserves are used. So, if you eat late at night and in the morning you also have breakfast, your body does not get a chance to burn fat because you have started filling up the glycogen reserves again.

Panda also added that not eating at least 12 hours at night can give your body time to burn all the available glycogen reserves and fat every night.

Maybe that's why when you often eat midnight close to bedtime, you can experience weight gain. In addition, the activities you do at night are of course very little so that if you eat before bed, your body does not directly change the food you eat into energy, but will save it as an energy reserve.

What are the consequences if you eat midnight?

Eating at night and close to bedtime can cause digestive disorders as well as sleep disorders. Some of the negative effects that arise when you eat midnight and after that go to sleep immediately, among others:

1. Gastric acid disorders

Aka stomach acid disorder heartburn or GERD occurs when stomach acid rises into the esophagus after eating and causes burning or burning around the chest. Sleeping after eating can trigger this to happen. To prevent acid reflux, you should not eat spicy foods and those containing high fat and acid at night.

The risk of GERD is especially higher in people with asthma. Sontag Research, et al. (2004) in 261 people with asthma and 218 people without asthma showed that participants who had asthma and had eating habits before bed had symptoms Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD) with more frequent frequencies, such as coughing and shortness of breath, compared with participants without asthma. Eating habits before bed have a serious impact on people with asthma.

2. Increase weight

What causes weight gain is the type of food eaten at night, and its portion. At night, people usually tend to choose foods that are high in carbohydrates and fats, with not a small portion. This is what causes weight gain.

3. Insomnia

Too much eating at night can cause insomnia. Consumption of drinks containing alcohol and caffeine close to bedtime can also cause insomnia.

What time should you eat last night?

If you are losing weight, you should eat dinner at the latest at 8 and try to eat 3 hours before going to bed. Sleeping immediately after eating can cause stomach acid to rise and cause heartburn, as explained above. It's best to avoid spicy and fatty foods to be consumed at night so you don't experience them heartburn. Also, limit your consumption of caffeinated drinks so you can sleep longer and more comfortably.