There are many weight-loss programs, plans and pills that claim to help you shed those extra pounds. Some eliminate specific foods like carbohydrates, others advocate eating only a certain food like grapefruit, and there are plans that replace meals with bars or shakes. Some also claim that eating at night can make you fat. Before beginning any weight-loss program, is important to check with a health care provider and to understand how weight gain and loss occurs.
Identification
Your body needs calories to survive and be active, but when you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no magic plan or program that leads to weight loss. One pound is equal to 3,500 calories, so you need to achieve a 3,500-calorie deficit by eating less and exercising more to lose a pound. A safe and sustainable rate of weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds a week, so you need to create a calorie deficit of 500 to 1,000 calories a day.
Causes
No matter when you eat, your body stores excess calories from protein, fats and carbohydrates, and those calories contribute to weight gain. However, usually weight gain is the result of several lifestyle choices, including being sedentary, skipping meals, consuming fast food and high-calorie beverages, and lack of sleep. In some cases, weight gain is the result of a medical condition or a side effect of a medication; a physician can run tests to determine the underlying cause.
Considerations
Although your metabolism does slow down when you are resting and sleeping, you still burn calories to fuel breathing, to keep the heart breathing, to support digestion and for many other functions. Nighttime eating alone does not increase your risk of gaining weight, according to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Brookline, Massachusetts. No matter when you eat, your body stores excess calories as fat.
Warnings
The reason nighttime eating might contribute to weight gain is not the time of day but the way you eat. According to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, factors such as skipping meals during the day, sitting in front of the TV or computer for hours at night, and feeling bored, tired or stressed all can lead you to make poor food choices in the evening. For those reasons, you might be more likely to eat high-calorie foods and snack constantly in the evening.
Solution
There are things you can do to help curb nighttime binging. The Weight Watchers website recommends eating a good breakfast and lunch so that hunger does not drive food choices later in the day. Eating filling meals at regular intervals will keep your blood sugar levels in check, which in turn decreases cravings for high-calorie junk food. Keep low-calorie snacks in the house, and get rid of the junk food. Find ways to keep busy at night.
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