>>Your weight is a result of calories in vs. calories out.

True. But what happens in between is what matters. It is called metabolism

>> Yes, disrupting your sleep patterns may affect the "calories out" department slightly, but that is not what is making you fat. It is food that is making you fat.

It is both. Sleep restriction or sleep deprivation have been shown to limit normal insulin activity. Instead of pulling glucose into cells where it can be used, the glucose remains in circulation. Some is converted to fat. The higher blood glucose levels is also known as diabetes. So when controlling for other factors, weight gain and diabetes (type II) is seen with sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprivation also changes hormone levels relating to appetite and satiety (feeling full). Look up grehlin and leptin. This fits with the "calories in" part but is driven by biological factors rather than personal failing and character flaws.

Less sleep ==>more hungry. Less sleep==> more fat storage.

Yes, people to should eat less and exercise more. I give this advice to patients that I treat. They should also sleep in more natural patterns. I give this advice as well. The motivation, concentration and executive function required to manage new routines are brain functions that also fall victim to sleep deprivation. Put another way, sleep deprived people are less effective than well rested people. So the capacity to work out a new diet (cooking, shopping and time management) is a greater challenge. Ditto exercise. It is still doable and therefore you will read slashdot contributions from those who have been successful. They are probably more to the right side of the bell curve and high functioning even when sleep deprived. But the plural of anecdotes is not data and the population at large will not have the same level of success without health care guidance.

>>Those who cannot understand the box are doomed to think inside it.

Evidently.

Having written a book on sleep deprivation...

Yes modern pre-industrial societies have segmented sleep. Their sleeping pattern in more fluid with daytime napping as an option. They keep their infants near when sleeping. Chimps also have segmented sleep.

Your sleep needs reflect the prior two weeks of accumulated debt. It can easily take more than a week to catch up on what you have been missing. The early stages don't feel great. In human studies where subjects live without time cues (free running experiments) they initially sleep up to eleven hours at a time then shift to segmented sleep. Long interrupted sleep feels great when you are sleep deprived. It is actually a good gauge of your sleep deprivation.

Sleep restricted people (e.g. getting 6 hours every night) have the same impairment as those who have pulled an all nighter but lack the insight into their cognitive impairment. There is also a loss of effective self monitoring and the ability to learn effectively from mistakes (especially negative input). That probably applies to most slashdotters.

Doctors and new parents have interrupted sleep inflicted on them when trying to fit in with the industrial modern work week (9 AM to 5 PM; 40 hours a week). This is not compatible. Those of you who call BS based on those experiences are feeling tired due to accumulated sleep debt.

The long term consequences of sleep deprivation or restriction: obesity, hypertension, diabetes , cardiovascular disease (MI Stroke), impaired immune function and cognitive emotional impairment (ADD, depression etc). There is an overall higher mortality rate due to these problems.

"Long work hours" to me is the same as saying sleep deprivation. I am a psychiatry resident and have been working 60-100 hour weeks for years. The cognitive and physiological effects of sleep deprivation have been my pet research topic (now in the form of a book looking for publication).

Are 10-11 hour work days feasible? Biologically, no.

The cognitive side effects you will suffer go like this;
1) The frontal lobes of your brain will start to do a terrible job of "executive functioning" and your capacity for multitasking and concentration will suffer for it.
2) Your ability to learn from mistakes will go down--in your case, you'll fail to note when your code produces unwanted results.
3) You'll be less able to contain your emotional responses. You'll be irritable and and more likely to catastrophize your mistakes.
4) The loss of concentration and reduced mood (coupled with poor sleep) will resemble depression.

Physically;
1) You are going to have metabolic changes-weight gain and difficulty managing your blood sugar. If you are not diabetic you may face it in the future (Type II)
2) It is a long term risk for death, typically from cardiovascular causes e.g. heart attacks and strokes.
3) Your immune system will be impaired. You'll get sick more easily and heal slowly.
4) Your pain threshold will lower along with your coordination. Get used to spilling hot coffee on yourself.

Look at what some other Slashdotters have written about their personal experiences with long work hours. Some have already confirmed this anecdotally but it is all supported by research.

Sleep deprivation can resemble a some psychiatric illnesses such as ADHD and depression.

So is the 10-11 hour work day feasible? What do you want from your life?