Let's Put a Myth to Bed

Hey everyone, it's Karen here. I have a lot of clients ask me something like: "Is it bad to eat after 7:00 pm?" Since I hear this so often, I thought I would share how I answer this question, especially since it stems from a myth that just won't die!

The underlying myth is that eating after dinner/later at night/after a certain time, etc. is bad for you. Why do people think it's bad? I'm not 100% sure, but I think the main concern is that it leads to unwanted weight gain. However, there are some legitimate concerns about how eating later at night/close to bedtime can affect things such as sleep quality, diabetes, or acid-reflux. But for the sake of argument, let's assume most people are concerned about eating at night as it relates to their weight.

Here is how I would address this concern:

• If your schedule (whether regularly or on a given day) requires that you can't eat dinner until 7:00, 8:00, or 9:00 pm, that is not inherently a problem. It is especially not a problem if that dinner fits into your overall nutrition needs for the day. Trust me, your body does not have some kind of hidden clock that says "Uh oh! She's eating after 8:00 pm. We have to store it all as fat!" Your body is pretty good at balancing things out over the course of several days.

• The problem usually occurs when eating at night is combined with not having eaten for several hours beforehand AND/OR the rest of that day's eating did not provide the proper quality or quantity of fuel. Under either or both of these conditions, there is a compensatory effect that happens. Your body is making up for lost time and food, so you tend to make poorer food choices and eat past the point of comfortable fullness later in the day. If that is the case, focus on eating nutrient-dense foods regularly through the day.

• Now maybe you are someone who tends to eat dinner around 5:00 or 6:00 pm, but stay up later (hello fellow night owls!) It would be perfectly reasonable to start feeling hungry 3 to 5 hours after your dinner if you are still awake. So, having a snack later in the evening would be perfectly sensible (going to bed hungry actually interferes with sleep, as we'll learn this week!)

• Regardless of when people eat dinner, there is another issue - how people tend to eat in the evening. After a long day, we're tired, maybe bored, and trying to relax at home. We feel comfortable and have access to food. It is a perfect storm that can lead to lots of mindless munching. I think that is a big part of why the myth about eating later at night endures - because this is the scenario we associate with it! How to deal with this predicament can be a blog post for another day, but I hope I've helped clarify how eating later at night is not inherently bad or problematic!