Late Night Hunger Monster

Many students who stay awake studying or hanging out with friends get hit by a late-night hunger, causing them to swing by McDonald’s or make a midnight Classics run. After all, greasy food always seems to taste better in the late hours of the night. Students may want to think twice next time they pop open that bag of chips.

Late-night eating is a culprit for weight gain in college students. Why does this snacking lead to weight gain? During the day students are usually busy going about their usual routines. This burns off excess calories and fat. On the other hand, at night, their body's metabolism is at rest, so there is no way to burn off excess calories going into the body. The calories are then stored, which is where the weight gain process starts.

In college, it’s inevitable to have a few late nights here and there. And on most campuses, with the convenient location of any fast food joint a student could ever crave, it’s hard to resist the night-time eating. The best way to dodge the hunger that creeps up after 8p.m. is to eat at least 3 normal sized meals throughout the day and snacks in between. A study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting showed that students who skip meals or don’t have some kind of eating routine throughout the day will consume about 500 calories late at night, or more than half of their daily intake.

College students, especially, need to be healthy and energized. With all they have on their plates at this point in life, it’s important to make simple changes in order to help their body, and their bodies will help them in return.

This is what OU sophomore Andrea Segura had to say about her late-night eating habits: