What’s the Connection: Hormones & Late Night Eating?

According to Time.com, the journal Obesity reported that “eating during the hours that the body would fat naturally be sleeping may lead to excess weight gain”. I have always recommended and tried to follow myself, the rule of eating most of your food before 7pm. Not only are you less active in the evening during sleep, but there are two hormones that are directly affected, and I am not talking about Cortisol…

Studies found that eating during the latter evening hours and the normal sleeping hours can disrupt the body’s “natural rhythm, setting off a string of metabolic reactions that ultimately lead to weight gain. Because our bodies are naturally cued to eat at certain times of the day, dining at the wrong time might affect the body’s ability to maintain its energy balance”, says Fred Turek.

It seems that these unusual metabolic reactions cause the body to burn energy/calories differently, causing the two important hormones that control the appetite to fluctuate. The hormones ghrelin (signals hunger to the brain) and leptin (signals satiety), are triggered to produce more ghrelin and less leptin. The brain becomes confused, being signaled to eat more while never feeling full.

So a possible outcome of eating during the normal sleeping hours could make our body feel hungrier and less satisfied – thus eating more calories than our body truly needs, especially right before bed when we will be less active! Don’t be fooled when eating late in the evening – you probably aren’t too hungry so stick to light and simple snacks such as fruit.