Myths and misconceptions have been a part and parcel of the fitness industry since seemingly forever. A lot of baseless and non-proven pieces of advice being thrown around by trainers and coaches like those set of dumbbells that were heavy in the first place for them to be lifting. One such golden piece of advice that everyone would be familiar with is that 'eating late at night makes you fat'.

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It started when research found a correlation between people indulging in late night snacking having a high BMI categorized as overweight or obese. As soon as this study results were published, gym bros started skipping their evening meals just like Instagram models skip leg days. And better yet, they had a few theories for the same. Let's break all of them down. 

Theory 1 - Your metabolism slows down at night

Claim - When you sleep, you will burn very little calories vs. when you are awake and thus store all the calories as fat. 

Reality - Recent studies have shown that your metabolism or more importantly Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) changes very little when you are asleep compared to being awake. Your heart is still pumping blood, you are still breathing, your brain is still active, etc. So this claim has no real data backing it. 

Theory 2 - Your insulin levels are higher at night

Claim - As your insulin levels are higher, you store more fat. 

Reality - Though your insulin levels are comparatively higher at night as to very early in the morning, they do not really change much vs. during mid-day or say afternoon. If high insulin levels really caused fat gain (which they do not, at least not directly), eating meals during the mid-day would also make you fat with the same logic that higher insulin levels are actually the reason that you become fat.

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Theory 3 - Carbs after 8 pm make you fat

Claim - If you eat carbohydrates in the evening and specifically after 8 pm, it will make you fat.

Reality - Carbohydrates are the main source of energy or fuel for our bodies. The carbohydrates you consume either get burned off or get stored as glycogen. Almost never do they directly get stored as fat. They inversely affect fat oxidation in your body. 

It goes like:

A. Eat more carbs, burn more carbs for energy, burn less fat for energy, store more fat. 

B. Eat fewer carbs, burn fewer carbs for energy, burn more fat for energy, store less fat. 

So technically, the 8 pm deadline does not really matter that much. It is your overall dietary energy intake for the day that makes a difference and not the number of carbohydrates per se. 

And if you look at it, a majority of the late night snacking options are calorie-dense low-volume junk items like chips, chocolate, cakes, ice-cream, etc. Basically, it is easier to consume a lot of calories with these food choices and in turn, eat more calories than needed by your body, thus making you fat. 

So does eating late at night make you fat? Not really.

Author bio:

Pratik Thakkar is the co-founder and director of GetSetGo Fitness, an online fitness company. He is regarded as someone who will make it easy for you to understand the process by putting things in the right context and providing science-based recommendations for natural bodybuilding. You can reach out to him at pratik@getsetgo.fitness and follow him on Instagram and Facebook.