There is much confusion about the subject of night time eating. Research shows that eating at night can lead to a greater weight gain – even when total calories consumed are the same. Eating at night can have a variety of reasons – not related to hunger or the need to consume nutritious foods – it is a habit
most likely to satisfy cravings or coping with boredom, fatigue and/or stress.
These late night snacks have a tendency of not being controlled and often consist of large amounts of high calorie foods such as chips, nuts, cookies and sweets. It is easy to lose track of the amount eaten while watching TV or sitting in front of a computer. It is easy to consume a large bag of chips, a carton of cookies with some soda to wash it down.
Night time, when no one is around to see you eat – may be the time you allow yourself to indulge in your favorite high calorie snacks and drinks. Don’t let your guard down after eating healthy all day just to ruin it during these few hours of relaxation.
Besides the extra calories, eating too close to bedtime may cause indigestion and prevent you from having a good night’s sleep. Going to sleep on a full stomach can add to your waist line and hold on longer to the calories consumed.
When choosing what foods to include in your late evening or midnight snack, it is important that you consider the amount of calories, since left-over calories (un-burned energy) is easily stored as fat. At any time, when you’re not expending much energy, you are much more likely to gain the extra weight.