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meal timing debate
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janejellyroll wrote: »Seattlegirl25 wrote: »I'm curious, are you drinking alcohol at all? Are you making sure you are drinking plenty of water? Are you making sure you stop eating before 7PM?
Have you tried exercising in the morning on an empty stomach? Just curious on all of these.
Also, are you mixing things up a little, like running / biking / etc?
I got crazy and drank 3.5 ounces of red wine last night. If I excerise on an empty belly I get REALLY dizzy. Because of my work schedule, my work hours are nutty. I try to finish consuming food before 9pm at the latest. I usually end up jogging in the evenings.
Gotcha. If you are eating regularly around 9PM, that could be part of the issue. But I guess this all depends when you go to bed and wake up.
Why does this matter??
What about people that work night shift?
They're doomed to be fat forever because they eat at night?
Read everything I asked before you quote my stuff. I did say it depends on when you go to bed and getup. Sheesh.
But It doesn't matter "when you go to bed and wake up". That's why they responded that way.
I disagree 100%. If you are eating dinner at 8PM and go to bed at 8:30PM, yes that does make a difference.
This is not true. Your body can digest food and use energy all day, even when you're sleeping.
Exactly. If your body stopped digesting food while you're sleeping, you'd be dead. Weight would be the least of your worries then. I lost 46 lbs eating in the 30 minutes before bed every damn night.7 -
Seattlegirl25 wrote: »I'm curious, are you drinking alcohol at all? Are you making sure you are drinking plenty of water? Are you making sure you stop eating before 7PM?
Have you tried exercising in the morning on an empty stomach? Just curious on all of these.
Also, are you mixing things up a little, like running / biking / etc?
I got crazy and drank 3.5 ounces of red wine last night. If I excerise on an empty belly I get REALLY dizzy. Because of my work schedule, my work hours are nutty. I try to finish consuming food before 9pm at the latest. I usually end up jogging in the evenings.
Gotcha. If you are eating regularly around 9PM, that could be part of the issue. But I guess this all depends when you go to bed and wake up.
Why does this matter??
What about people that work night shift?
They're doomed to be fat forever because they eat at night?
Read everything I asked before you quote my stuff. I did say it depends on when you go to bed and getup. Sheesh.
But It doesn't matter "when you go to bed and wake up". That's why they responded that way.
I disagree 100%. If you are eating dinner at 8PM and go to bed at 8:30PM, yes that does make a difference.
Provide proof of your claim please.7 -
janejellyroll wrote: »Seattlegirl25 wrote: »I'm curious, are you drinking alcohol at all? Are you making sure you are drinking plenty of water? Are you making sure you stop eating before 7PM?
Have you tried exercising in the morning on an empty stomach? Just curious on all of these.
Also, are you mixing things up a little, like running / biking / etc?
I got crazy and drank 3.5 ounces of red wine last night. If I excerise on an empty belly I get REALLY dizzy. Because of my work schedule, my work hours are nutty. I try to finish consuming food before 9pm at the latest. I usually end up jogging in the evenings.
Gotcha. If you are eating regularly around 9PM, that could be part of the issue. But I guess this all depends when you go to bed and wake up.
Why does this matter??
What about people that work night shift?
They're doomed to be fat forever because they eat at night?
Read everything I asked before you quote my stuff. I did say it depends on when you go to bed and getup. Sheesh.
But It doesn't matter "when you go to bed and wake up". That's why they responded that way.
I disagree 100%. If you are eating dinner at 8PM and go to bed at 8:30PM, yes that does make a difference.
This is not true. Your body can digest food and use energy all day, even when you're sleeping.
I will give up on this post and good luck to the original poster. Many of you think you are experts when people ask general questions. Some of your responses are clueless.
Lol...you gotta love January...
I've eaten dinner at around 8:30 for as long as I can remember and I'm usually in bed by 9:30 at the latest and up at 5 or 5:30. I lost 40 Lbs very easily and have maintained that for going on 5 years.
I spent the last two weeks in Tanzania for the holidays...it is customary there to eat the evening meal between 8-9PM and they don't keep long hours...everyone I saw there was lean AF. This is also quite customary in many parts of the world.
If I need 3000 calories to maintain my weight, then I need 3,000 calories...it doesn't matter when I eat them...if I eat 2500 calories I'll lose about 1 Lb per week...doesn't matter when I eat them.
ETA: if things were really this complicated, the human species would have died off eons ago...12 -
I think most of the "don't eat late" stuff comes from people snacking mindlessly because they are tired and stressed, sitting in front of the TV before going to sleep. It makes you fat because it's extra calories you don't account for, not because it's close to when you go to sleep. Your body is constantly processing and digesting food, it doesn't happen in a routine 16 hour cycle.
I will sometimes eat something crunchy like pretzels or dry cereal right before I brush my teeth and go to sleep. Hasn't kept me from losing and now maintaining my weight as expected based on my calorie totals.7 -
I hate the "must eat before 7 pm" thing because I am NEVER home before then. So to lose weight I have to not have dinner or never eat at home? Luckily that is not true, and I lost -- lost faster than MFP predicted, even -- eating at 9 or 9:30 most nights.2
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I think most of the "don't eat late" stuff comes from people snacking mindlessly because they are tired and stressed, sitting in front of the TV before going to sleep. It makes you fat because it's extra calories you don't account for, not because it's close to when you go to sleep. Your body is constantly processing and digesting food, it doesn't happen in a routine 16 hour cycle.
I will sometimes eat something crunchy like pretzels or dry cereal right before I brush my teeth and go to sleep. Hasn't kept me from losing and now maintaining my weight as expected based on my calorie totals.
This, exactly ... for me at least. I try to limit my snacks because I can easily snack enough to add as many calories as I had at one of my meals ... on TOP of the meals = weight gain because it's more food than I need to maintain my weight. Thus, I try to stop eating by a when I run out of available calorie allowances, no matter what time of day that is.1 -
I don't snack. I actually think that one thing that made this easier for me when I first started was that I did eat dinner so late, so never really felt compelled to eat after dinner (unless it was a planned dessert immediately after, because I had the calories).1
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Meal timing doesn't make any difference whatsoever. Calories vs calories out does.5
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lemurcat12 wrote: »I don't snack. I actually think that one thing that made this easier for me when I first started was that I did eat dinner so late, so never really felt compelled to eat after dinner (unless it was a planned dessert immediately after, because I had the calories).
I would HAVE to snack in the afternoon if I couldn't have dinner til 9 at night. Most nights im in bed by that time.
Dinner time for me is around 5-6pm. I cant wait any longer lol
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A question- I see a lot of posts on MFP which state meal timing makes no difference to weight loss. Does anyone have the cites for the peer reviewed research to back this up?
I’m particularly interested in reading anything where they control tested meal timing in relation to bed time, not time of day.
Thanks2 -
I really don't think it makes much of a difference. It might make a small difference somewhere along the time line, but I gotta believe that it's so small and insignificant that it's really not worth worrying about.
1st world problem, right?2 -
A question- I see a lot of posts on MFP which state meal timing makes no difference to weight loss. Does anyone have the cites for the peer reviewed research to back this up?
I’m particularly interested in reading anything where they control tested meal timing in relation to bed time, not time of day.
https://examine.com/nutrition/does-eating-at-night-make-it-more-likely-to-gain-weight/ -- sources linked at the end
The studies that show differences are often due to the participants consuming less, not due to any physiological disadvantage of nighttime eating.
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It just doesn't even make sense.
Your body doesn't use the food you just that second ate for your energy.
5 -
A question- I see a lot of posts on MFP which state meal timing makes no difference to weight loss. Does anyone have the cites for the peer reviewed research to back this up?
I’m particularly interested in reading anything where they control tested meal timing in relation to bed time, not time of day.
Thanks
https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html/
A research review. It has the title of the study if you wish to read the full thing that Lyle McDonald is reviewing.1 -
Motorsheen wrote: »I really don't think it makes much of a difference. It might make a small difference somewhere along the time line, but I gotta believe that it's so small and insignificant that it's really not worth worrying about.
1st world problem, right?
Yeah, that's what I think too. Even if there were some small benefit to not eating after 6 pm or some such nonsense, it would be outweighed by the benefits of focusing on what is easier for you to manage as a lifestyle. For me, not having dinner would be, well, a lifestyle problem, I'd be less likely to stick to it, so I went for dinner when it worked for me.
That I lost faster than MFP predicted anyway further confirmed me in my view that it doesn't matter and that people flipping out about eating dinner super early are majoring in the minors. Obviously, if it affected my ability to sleep or caused digestion problems, I'd fix it.2 -
RuNaRoUnDaFiEld wrote: »A question- I see a lot of posts on MFP which state meal timing makes no difference to weight loss. Does anyone have the cites for the peer reviewed research to back this up?
I’m particularly interested in reading anything where they control tested meal timing in relation to bed time, not time of day.
Thanks
https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html/
A research review. It has the title of the study if you wish to read the full thing that Lyle McDonald is reviewing.
Hmm well if I were looking for research about 6 meals a day vs. 3 or less this would be interesting. Not on point if the question is caloric uptake difference if digesting while asleep vs digesting when awake tho.3 -
fuzzylop72 wrote: »A question- I see a lot of posts on MFP which state meal timing makes no difference to weight loss. Does anyone have the cites for the peer reviewed research to back this up?
I’m particularly interested in reading anything where they control tested meal timing in relation to bed time, not time of day.
https://examine.com/nutrition/does-eating-at-night-make-it-more-likely-to-gain-weight/ -- sources linked at the end
The studies that show differences are often due to the participants consuming less, not due to any physiological disadvantage of nighttime eating.
As I read that the article’s conclusion was based upon the peer reviewed studies that exist “It is pretty hard to reach any conclusions” and none of the cited studies addressed time of eating/bedtime - all cited were about the time of eating/clock time.
I’ll do some more research, but thus far I’ve not come across one study that specifically looks at whether sleep affects caloric intake - thus I don’t know that there is any peer reviewed scientific basis for a statement that it matters/doesn’t matter.
I’d love to know if there is any science pointing one direction or another, because if there is I can’t find it.2 -
Seattlegirl25 wrote: »I'm curious, are you drinking alcohol at all? Are you making sure you are drinking plenty of water? Are you making sure you stop eating before 7PM?
Have you tried exercising in the morning on an empty stomach? Just curious on all of these.
Also, are you mixing things up a little, like running / biking / etc?
I got crazy and drank 3.5 ounces of red wine last night. If I excerise on an empty belly I get REALLY dizzy. Because of my work schedule, my work hours are nutty. I try to finish consuming food before 9pm at the latest. I usually end up jogging in the evenings.
Gotcha. If you are eating regularly around 9PM, that could be part of the issue. But I guess this all depends when you go to bed and wake up.
Why does this matter??
What about people that work night shift?
They're doomed to be fat forever because they eat at night?
Read everything I asked before you quote my stuff. I did say it depends on when you go to bed and getup. Sheesh.
But It doesn't matter "when you go to bed and wake up". That's why they responded that way.
I disagree 100%. If you are eating dinner at 8PM and go to bed at 8:30PM, yes that does make a difference.
Sometimes I really wish it did. On those days I am fed up with eating, I could eat my cals right before bed to help me gain and not worry about the rest of the day. It doesn't work like that though.6 -
I don't think it's really fair to say that meal timing make no difference in weight loss. I think meal timing can make a pretty big difference. Not from a physiological standpoint, but weight loss is as much a mental game as a physiological one. And when you eat can affect how easy it is to stick to your calorie goals.
Eating at times that fit your personal schedule and lifestyle seems a really important thing to me. So while I understand that the gist of this thread is to refute that one should not eat just before bed or late at night, I think it is just as wrong to say meal timing doesn't matter at all.5 -
All this being said, Meal timing and "eating timing" are different and can contribute to weight loss.
Eating between dinner and bedtime can tend to be mindless, low nutrient, high calorie foods. And is generally advisable to avoid on a regular or habitual basis. Eating dinner at 2045 and going to sleep at 2100 on the other hand isn't going to affect your "metabolism".
Eating more, or eating too much will affect your CI, and thus trend towards weight gain. Particular timing matters not at all.2
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