Most people know eating late at night before to going to bed is not ideal for weight loss.
Late night eating, for the most part, is considered to be eating less than two to three hours before going to bed. Physiologically, eating that close to sleeping is not beneficial to losing those “love handles.” It is ideal to go to bed a little hungry. Being just a little hungry at bedtime will force your body to burn some fat in order to fulfill the energy requirements to have your heart beat, your eyes to move around all over the place during REM sleep, and for your lungs to breathe. Although the energy requirements are minimal, it still beats the alternative of fat storage.
Usually, having a strong craving to eat at night means that you did not eat enough times during the day. Because of not eating during the day, you will have to binge at night to make up for it. Your metabolism is at its lowest at night because your body is preparing itself for sleep, thus slowing your metabolism. The food you just ate will not be able to be digested fully and your body will convert it to fat. Do this consistently and eventually you’ll have to sleep on one side of the bed to let your belly have the other half of the bed.
Binging at night with all that food will cause your body to have an insulin spike, which in turn will cause your body to store fat. Your brain sends a message to your pancreas to make more insulin. The large amount of insulin made will store as fat most of the calories from the food you just ate. Insulin regulates your blood sugar by taking glucose, a sugar, out of the bloodstream and storing it as fat. Eating more meals in smaller amounts during the day will help keep your insulin levels more stable and your body will not store as much fat. This is the reason that it is not a good idea to eat food that is high in simple sugars, such as glucose. Ideally, spread your meals out over the course of the day, eating larger amounts in the earlier part of the day or before nighttime. Another reason eating a lot at night is not good is that the next day you will wake up and not want to eat anything for breakfast. Breakfast is considered by many to be the most important meal of the day because your metabolism is at its maximum. Breakfast will also provide you with energy to stay awake through some of your boring class lectures, and get into the Rec to burn some extra calories.
The idea that skipping meals during the day and eating one large meal late is good for weight loss is a misconception because your metabolism will not be at an optimal rate. In addition, eating the one large meal will make you feel tired because your body will be using a lot of its energy to digest the large amount of food.
A late night cutoff time can be set a couple of hours prior to going to bed. The cutoff time may make you uncomfortable at first because of the habit of eating late at night, but keep consistently at it and your body will adapt.