Overview
If you're trying to lose weight, not eating after 7 p.m. may be a good idea, although perhaps not for the reasons you might think. Health experts have different opinions on whether nighttime eating can cause weight gain; while some, like Beth Kitchin, M.S., R.D., of the University of Alabama Department of nutrition feel that food eaten at night is no more likely to cause weight gain than food eaten during the day, others disagree. If you suffer from gastroesophageal reflux, eating after 7 p.m. could worsen your symptoms at bedtime.
Extra Calories
One risk of eating after 7 is that you're likely to consume unnecessary calories. You're more likely to sit down to watch TV with a bag of chips than a bowl of carrots, and it's easy to mindlessly consume too many calories while you're watching TV, Kitchin says. Excess calories will be stored as fat no matter when you consume them.
Gastroesophageal Reflux
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) affects around 20 percent of Americans at some point in their lives, says John Chiesa, D.O., of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine. A floppy muscle between the esophagus and stomach that opens at the wrong time allows stomach acid to flow into the esophagus, causing the discomfort, burning, belching and coughing associated with heartburn. Eating two to three hours before bedtime can definitely worsen GERD. Not eating after dinner plus sleeping with your head elevated on several pillows can help relieve nighttime symptoms.
Theories
Some experts believe that eating at night does cause extra weight, for several potential reasons. Eating at night may change glucose metabolism or insulin resistance, Angie Chen of the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California reported in the journal "Nutrition Noteworthy." Slower metabolism at night may also contribute to more weight gain from late night eating. Changes in levels of leptin, which regulates appetite and growth hormone, which controls glucose metabolism at night, might also change the way you metabolize food eaten after 7 p.m.
Considerations
There's certainly no health benefit to eating after 7 p.m. and there may be health benefits to avoiding food at night, especially if you suffer from heartburn. If you're trying to lose weight, you have nothing to lose by cutting off the food train right after dinner and not hitting the snack foods while you're relaxing watching TV.
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