Does eating at night make you fat?

Publish Date
Friday, 22 June 2018, 12:00PM
Photo / Getty

Photo / Getty


First, it's important to remember that again in body weight only occurs when there is a change in calories consumed or calories burned. A calorie is a calorie, but there are conditions where food calories could influence your tendency to gain weight or lose it.




Eating late in the evening is linked to weight gain and obesity, whereas research shows that eating breakfast is linked to a lower risk of obesity. This supports the theory that it's better to eat your main meal earlier rather than later.



Is breakfast a coffee on the go or a sit down full English – or do you skip it altogether? If you don't usually eat breakfast, just adding it in won't necessarily lead to spontaneous weight loss.

Research in obese adults, shows that some people even gain weight when they do this. We need more research to understand whether breakfasts of specific composition (high fibre or high protein) could improve weight management, and to understand the mechanisms that would best allow this.


So, for breakfast eaters, it is possible that lifestyle factors that may not have been accounted for in these studies, such as physical activity or smoking status, could explain the results. We need more evidence before we can support or reject the idea that timing of eating is important for body weight and health.

Lark or owl?


Are you an owl or a lark? Knowing your own tendency to feel alert and energetic – your "chronotype" – can help you plan your eating, work and sleep patterns. There are online quizzes to find out if you an early bird or night owl.

As we understand this interaction of time of day and metabolism better, we will be able to give more accurate dietary advice to the individual that is not only related to nutritional composition, but also time of eating. But first, we need more chrono-nutrition research (time of eating linked to circadian rhythm) to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge.

Alex Johnstone, Personal Chair in Nutrition, The Rowett Institute, University of Aberdeenand Peter Morgan, Chair professor, University of Aberdeen
