Last night I didn’t eat my dinner until 9pm.
The day was just that busy and 9pm was the soonest I could get a full meal in front of me.
And boy did I eat.
Lucky for me, my wife is a great cook and she made an Asian-themed dish that included rice noodles, baby Bok Choy, a yummy homemade sauce, and baked salmon.
I had 2 bowls full… and I did it without hesitation.
Why am I telling you this?
Well, a question I get asked pretty often is “IS is bad to eat at night, like after 8pm?“
Folks are worried that eating after the sun goes down will contribute to weight gain.
My answer is always: it depends.
It depends on what else you’ve eaten that day up until that point.
For me, I still hadn’t eaten my dinner- a meal at which I probably consume ¼ – ⅓ of my calories for the day.
Had I just skipped the meal altogether, simply because it was 9pm, I would have been waaaay under my calorie requirement for the day.
[And before you ask, no that isn’t a good thing… No, not even if I wanted to lose weight]
However, most folks migrate toward the fridge or snack cabinet around 8 – 9pm looking for snacks.
Often, this doesn’t have anything to do with actual physiological hunger… but instead boredom, or simply a well-ingrained routine/habit.
And, if that’s the case, it would put you in a calorie surplus which would cause weight gain over time.
So the real question here is not “is eating after 8pm bad?” but rather “why am I eating after 8pm?”
The way to get the answer is to track your food for a few days and get an idea of whether or not you’re hitting your numbers (calories, protein, carbs, fat).
If you have hit your macros for the day, the 8pm craving is psychological hunger rather than a physiological one. But if you are low on calories / macros for the day, its wise to eat something that will help you hit your numbers for the day.
If you need help figuring out your macros and/or tracking them… just hit REPLY.. I’ll help you do a Custom Nutrition Analysis so you know exactly what & how much to eat!
