How late is too late?

lifetimelady02

Hi everyone,
Today I burned about 850 cals in exercise and are pretty light as I did not prepare like I normally do. Sometimes I don't get home until 7 or 8, how late is too late to eat something?? What works for you? I see conflicting reports on this. Thanks and trying to drop 30

kshama2001

Unless you have a medical condition like acid reflux that would be aggravated by lying down on a full stomach, meal timing is irrelevant

DebSozo

It's never too late. You can shift your meals around for your personal schedule.

Alatariel75

Eat whenever you like. The idea that meal timing affects weight loss has been debunked.

malibu927

Too late for me is when I'm in bed. As @kshama2001 said, unless eating late causes sleeping issues, you're fine.

Dano74

No such thing. Eat a heaping bowl of pasta and sauce with garlic bread if it fits your caloric goals and go to sleep full and happy as can be.

kshama2001

malibu927 wrote: »

Too late for me is when I'm in bed. As @kshama2001 said, unless eating late causes sleeping issues, you're fine.

Too late for me is when I'm too sleepy to not get crumbs in my bed

jemhh

Do not eat while sleeping. Other than that, you're good.

arditarose

So why do you think it would matter? You know a lot of people eat dinner at 8,9,10pm. And then dessert. I eat 3x on the hour between 7:30 and 9:30 personally.

SCoil123

I only eat between 2-10pm but thats a matter of preference

143tobe

Yep...agree with everyone else. In the long run, the time is irrelevant. Your scale may be a little higher in the morning depending on what you ate, but that all levels out.

RaeBeeBaby

Due to schedules we eat dinner quite late - between 8:30 and 9:00. Has only negatively affected weight loss when I'm eating more calories than what I'm burning.

I'm curious why people set goals to not eat after a certain time of day. I see that quite frequently on MFP, but don't understand the science (if any) behind it.

Christine_72

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

Due to schedules we eat dinner quite late - between 8:30 and 9:00. Has only negatively affected weight loss when I'm eating more calories than what I'm burning.

I'm curious why people set goals to not eat after a certain time of day. I see that quite frequently on MFP, but don't understand the science (if any) behind it.

I think it comes from reading the articles that say your body slows down when you're sleeping so isn't as efficient at burning the calories off as it does when you're up, active and awake. Or something like that..

jemhh

People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

richardgavel

I eat dinner regularly at 8 and 9 PM, after my workouts. And then on top of that, I have cereal and milk right before bed as a snack. It's worked fine for me to the tune of 60 lbs down.

dhimaan

Meal timing is irrelevant unless you are following a specific IF protocol. Even then you need to be in a calorie deficit.

What works for me?
I eat whenever I am hungry.

CattOfTheGarage

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

I'm curious why people set goals to not eat after a certain time of day. I see that quite frequently on MFP, but don't understand the science (if any) behind it.

In fairness, some people are doing it because they have an ingrained habit of high calorie snacking in the evening and they're using that rule as a way of breaking the habit. That sort of thing is very individual.

Chilli7777

Your metabolism is only very slightly faster in the morning and will digest at the same rate throughout the day and night.

Bonny132

I eat between 12-8 as I am not a breakfast person and I don't like eating too late in the evening.

kommodevaran

Too late to eat is when you are sleeping or the food has gone bad or someone else has eaten it. Everything else is myth or half-thruth, ot half-truth turned myth.

Grammytryingtogetfit

I was getting ready to post this question, glad I found this!!! Thanks Everyone

Anvil_Head

The best time to stop eating is when you fall asleep. Because eating after you fall asleep presents a choking hazard. Other than that, it's irrelevant and up to personal preference.

RaeBeeBaby wrote: »

...I'm curious why people set goals to not eat after a certain time of day. I see that quite frequently on MFP, but don't understand the science (if any) behind it.

There is no science behind it. It's woo which stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of physiology and metabolism. People mistakenly believe that your whole body (including the digestive system) goes to sleep when your brain does, and any food in your stomach just sits there - or worse yet, somehow mysteriously turns into fat.

There's nothing wrong with cutting off eating at a certain time because somebody doesn't like to go to bed on a full stomach, or has indigestion issues or difficulty sleeping, or finds that a full stomach at night makes them wake up ravenously hungry in the morning, or whatever. Everybody should do what works best for them - but thinking that it somehow helps (or prevents) weight/fat loss is completely wrong.

cwolfman13

Doesn't really matter. ..I eat dinner at 830/9 every night.

Keep in mind that many of these "rules" are simply a way of controlling calories...most people don't count calories so having various rules in place is a way of controlling CI.

SCoil123

143tobe wrote: »

Yep...agree with everyone else. In the long run, the time is irrelevant. Your scale may be a little higher in the morning depending on what you ate, but that all levels out.

I do my weigh in just before my first food for this reason