For people trying to avoid weight gain, a new study suggests that staying away from the kitchen at night may help. Published in this month’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study marks the first investigation of nighttime eating in an inpatient environment, where researchers can measure how much participants actually eat. In the study, a group of healthy volunteers used a computerized vending machine to choose their foods at any time. The researchers determined when and how much the participants ate over the course of three days. About half of the participants ate at night and these individual consumed more calories every day. The extra calories came from night eating. And after an average follow-up of about three and a half years, the night time eaters had gained more weight than participants who were not night eaters, gaining 14 pounds and 4 pounds respectively.