Does Eating Before Bed Make You Fat?

This might be one of the most common nutrition questions out there. People are constantly worried about eating too late for fear of gaining weight. For example many people ask, "If you eat before bed isn't your metabolism really slow and therefore that food gets turned to fat?"
Not only do people blame late night eating on weight gain but they also blame it on crazy, vivid dreams. (Get ready I'm about to quote A Christmas Carol) Even Ebenezer Scrooge blames food on seeing the Marley Ghosts in A Christmas Carol by saying, "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato." Let's break down what eating before bed causes.
Health Effects of Eating Before Bed?
Newsflash: to date there is no conclusive scientific evidence that illustrates that eating before bed causes weight gain in the average individual. When it comes to night time eating and weight gain, registered dietitian Sarah Remmer said, "This is a myth. What matters when it comes to weight, is the total calories consumed in any given day, not the timing of these calories." Weight gain still comes down to total caloric consumption over the course of the day! Eating a healthy snack at night is actually better than going to sleep hungry because hunger can cause restless sleep (more on that below).

The only concern with night time eating is that most of these snacks aren't the best food choices. Most of the time these snacks are comfort foods that we think will help us sleep better. They may make us feel emotionally better, but these bad food choices like a couple cookies or a bowl of ice cream can lead to us going over our daily caloric recommendations leading to weight gain.
Harmful Consequences?
Eating before bed can cause heartburn, bloating, and insomnia which all lead to a night of restless sleep! A night of restless sleep in which you get less than 6.5 hours of shut-eye has actually been shown in a 2013 American Journal of Health Promotion publication to be correlated with a higher body fat percentage! This is probably attributed to getting less sleep causing us to be hungrier the next day according to a 2013 Endocrine Society study leading to weight gain!
Lastly, when it comes to vivid dreams Ebenezer Scrooge was right. Foods that can induce a restless sleep can cause us to think we had crazy vivid dreams because we are more likely to remember them! Dr. Ware (Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School) explained, "The rule of thumb is that you need to wake up within five minutes of having a dream to recall it." When you sleep soundly you may have incredibly crazy dreams but you don't remember them; food induced sleep disturbances allow you to vividly remember those bizarre dreams

Conclusion
As stated, there is no scientific evidence that demonstrates that eating before bed causes the average person to gain weight. But when it comes down to it, just be smart. Even though it may comfort you, crap food is crap food no matter the time of day you eat it! Forget the carton of rocky road; go for the apple instead before bed!

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