Only Eating at Night: Risks and Benefits
Nutrition & FitnessDiet & Nutrition

Eating Late at Night and Not Eating During the Day

Eating Late at Night and Not Eating During the Day
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Updated on October 23, 2025
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If you're skipping meals all day and only eating at night, you're doing a type of intermittent fasting. Depending on how you do it, it may help with weight loss and provide other health benefits. However, it's important to be aware of the risks.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that involves alternating between periods of eating and fasting. According to Mayo Clinic, this type of timed eating aims to focus your cells on repair to help improve metabolism and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

There are a number of different approaches to intermittent fasting. Fasting all day and only eating at night is a more extreme form, sometimes referred to as the one-meal-a-day diet.

A more common type of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 method. This approach involves fasting for 16 hours a day and restricting your eating to an 8-hour window. Because most people naturally fast during sleep, this method is more popular, according to Cleveland Clinic.

Research shows that intermittent fasting may have some short-term benefits, like improving blood sugar, aiding weight loss, and reducing inflammation, according to Mayo Clinic. However, more studies are needed to understand the long-term health effects.

Not Eating All Day

Restricting your eating to only one meal per day may have some health benefits, including lowering blood sugar and promoting fat loss.

A small study published in 2022 looked at the effects of meal frequency on metabolic health in lean individuals. It found that participants who ate only one meal per day had lower blood glucose and greater fat loss compared with those who ate three meals. However, researchers note that more studies are needed to confirm these effects.

In addition to potential benefits, eating only one meal per day may also cause side effects like fatigue, headaches, and irritability, according to Cleveland Clinic. Also, intermittent fasting may not be safe for some people, such as those who are pregnant, malnourished, or have hypoglycemia or an eating disorder.

Eating Too Much at Night

Eating at night as part of intermittent fasting may not cause any problems. However, research suggests that shifting meals to later in the day without restricted eating may lead to weight gain and other health risks.

According to a review published in 2022 in Nutrients, eating late at night was associated with an increased risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Nighttime snacking can lead to excess calories because of the increased number of eating times per day. Additionally, eating too much at night might disrupt your circadian rhythm, which can affect glucose metabolism and increase your risk of chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes.

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Reyna Franco, RDN

Medical Reviewer
Member of American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Reyna Franco, RDN, is a New York City–based dietitian-nutritionist, certified specialist in sports dietetics, and certified personal trainer. She is a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and has a master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Columbia University.

In her private practice, she provides medical nutrition therapy for weight management, sports nutrition, diabetes, cardiac disease, renal disease, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, food allergies, eating disorders, and childhood nutrition. To serve her diverse patients, she demonstrates cultural sensitivity and knowledge of customary food practices. She applies the tenets of lifestyle medicine to reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve health outcomes for her patients.

Franco is also a corporate wellness consultant who conducts wellness counseling and seminars for organizations of every size. She taught sports nutrition to medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, taught life cycle nutrition and nutrition counseling to undergraduate students at LaGuardia Community College, and precepts nutrition students and interns. She created the sports nutrition rotation for the New York Distance Dietetic Internship program.

She is the chair of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist Member Interest Group. She is also the treasurer and secretary of the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, having previously served in many other leadership roles for the organization, including as past president, awards committee chair, and grant committee chair, among others. She is active in the local Greater New York Dietetic Association and Long Island Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, too.

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Lucinda Honeycutt

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Lucinda Honeycutt is a writer with a passion for health, fitness, and nutrition. Her cerebral palsy causes issues with balance, posture, and mobility, which means eating right and exercising are essential to her ability to function. Because of stress on the joints and altered body mechanics, premature aging is an issue that physical activity can help slow down.

Over the past decade of her career, Lucinda has researched dietary supplements to learn more about their claims and effectiveness. Beyond this, she has spent much of her life in physical therapy, giving her a great deal of experience with safe and effective routines to improve wellness.

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