Eating late makes you fat

The claim, as heard: "Don't eat after six — anything you eat late turns straight to fat."

What the data show. A calorie eaten at nine in the evening carries the same energy as one at noon; the body does not run a separate account after dark. What the trials do find is subtler. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials on meal timing — twenty-nine trials, about 2,400 people, a median of twelve weeks — reports a small advantage for distributing more of the day's food earlier, on weight and some metabolic markers. The effect is small, the trials are short, and the review reads it as most likely running through intake: people who eat earlier tend to eat somewhat less overall, and late eating is often additional eating — the snack after dinner, the second dinner — rather than the same food at a different hour.

Verdict: false as stated; there is a small, real timing effect that the claim exaggerates into a rule. Evidence grade B: a recent meta-analysis of short trials.

The grain of truth. Late-evening eating is where a lot of unplanned energy enters, and for people who find hunger easier to manage earlier in the day, shifting the balance forward is a reasonable tool. The 16:8 page covers the structured version.

One sentence to remember: the clock does not make food fattening; the extra meal that tends to happen late does.