When you should eat...???

Kevin_Hassenpflug

I am wondering "when" you should eat, I've heard you MUST break-the-fast (don't call it breakfast, IT IS break-the-fast) come hell or highwater (as the saying goes) and YOU MUST eat something with 1 hour (1 opinion) or 2 hours (2nd opinion) upon waking up OR ELSE EVERYTHING you eat thereafter will ONLY turn to bodyfat. Interesting that both opinions didn't care that after your break-the-fast if you waited 12 hours before eating again.....that was fine.

So my questions are these:

1). MUST you eat within 1 or 2 hours of sleeping?
2). Can you indeed then go 12 hours before eating again?

BONUS: What works best?

quiksylver296

Eat when you're hungry. Find what works for you and do that. All these arbitrary rules are woo. All you need to lose weight is a calorie deficit.

I am up around 3:30, and typically don't break-my-fast until about 9:30. I cannot then go 12 hours before eating again - no freaking way.

Terytha

Eat whenever. Time is a human construct, your body doesn't care when it is as long as it gets enough calories to live.

Some studies were done that prove nothing works "best." Whether you eat breakfast or not, after sleeping or not, after dark or not, it's all the same.

missblondi2u

1) No.
2) Sure.
3) Whatever helps you stay within your calorie budget.

I very rarely eat breakfast and lose weight just fine.

Panini911

people should eat on a schedule that works for them. there is no one size fits all. no "must" no "should".

some prefer eating fewer times a day. some prefer eating more often (I am a 5-6x a day person). Some prefer eating earlier in the day, others prefer not eating til later in the day.

do you. you can experiment if you want to see if one thing works better or not for you but just cuz it works for someone else doesn`t mean it`s best for you.

ccrdragon

I get up at 4:00, at the gym by 4:30, eat my first meal around noon and stop eating by 7:00 in the evening. Still losing weight, still getting healthier, not following an arbitrary schedule.

To directly answer your questions:
1. no
2. sure
3. the best schedule is the one that keeps you happy and allows you to maintain the deficit that you need to lose weight.

RelCanonical

Agree with the others above, go by preference, it doesn't really matter in terms of hours, when you eat. I'll add the same goes for eating at night - there is no issue with it from a physiological standpoint unless you get heartburn or stomach issues from lying down on a full stomach.

erickirb

ccrdragon wrote: »

I get up at 4:00, at the gym by 4:30, eat my first meal around noon and stop eating by 7:00 in the evening. Still losing weight, still getting healthier, not following an arbitrary schedule.

To directly answer your questions:
1. no
2. sure
3. the best schedule is the one that keeps you happy and allows you to maintain the deficit that you need to lose weight.

Only thing I will add to number 3, energy levels and athletic performance should be considered too, though that may fit in with "keeps you happy"

NovusDies

It doesn't even matter daily how you break up your calories as long as you have enough energy to get through each day. If your daily calorie goal is 2000 calories and you eat 1500 calories today and 2500 calories tomorrow it makes zero different to your weight loss.

apullum

Kevin_Hassenpflug wrote: »

I am wondering "when" you should eat, I've heard you MUST break-the-fast (don't call it breakfast, IT IS break-the-fast) come hell or highwater (as the saying goes) and YOU MUST eat something with 1 hour (1 opinion) or 2 hours (2nd opinion) upon waking up OR ELSE EVERYTHING you eat thereafter will ONLY turn to bodyfat. Interesting that both opinions didn't care that after your break-the-fast if you waited 12 hours before eating again.....that was fine.

So my questions are these:

1). MUST you eat within 1 or 2 hours of sleeping?
2). Can you indeed then go 12 hours before eating again?

BONUS: What works best?

Generally speaking, things that people have "heard" about nutrition/weight/fitness from unnamed sources turn out not to be true.

Dreamwa1ker

Find what helps you manage your own hunger. Some people have to eat small snacks every couple hours or they'll get too hungry and overdo it next meal. Or they have to have breakfast or they'll go crazy on snacks. I'm sort of the opposite - for me, I am not hungry for hours after waking up, not til close to lunch - I have been this way since I was a kid, so I think this is just how I'm wired. So I don't eat breakfast, just eat an early-ish, large, lunch. I found that when I forced myself to eat breakfast, I ended up just eating more calories through the day because I was just as hungry around lunch time, and I like to have a large lunch and dinner to feel satisfied. I actually lose more weight when I skip breakfast for this reason. But that is simply because calories in vs calories out comes out better for me personally.

So, you need to figure out for yourself what helps you feel the best and is most manageable to fit in your calorie goals. Time you eat doesn't matter beyond that.

AnnPT77

Kevin_Hassenpflug wrote: »

I am wondering "when" you should eat, I've heard you MUST break-the-fast (don't call it breakfast, IT IS break-the-fast) come hell or highwater (as the saying goes) and YOU MUST eat something with 1 hour (1 opinion) or 2 hours (2nd opinion) upon waking up OR ELSE EVERYTHING you eat thereafter will ONLY turn to bodyfat. Interesting that both opinions didn't care that after your break-the-fast if you waited 12 hours before eating again.....that was fine.

So my questions are these:

1). MUST you eat within 1 or 2 hours of sleeping?
2). Can you indeed then go 12 hours before eating again?

BONUS: What works best?

I agree with the crowd again, but would add this thought experiment:

What are the odds that our ancestors, over thousands of cultures, over thousands of years, under all kinds of conditions of famine and plenty, all and always ate within 1 to 2 hours of waking up? What are the odds that with hunter/gatherer or farmer/peasant lifestyle that they were chock full of bodyfat when they didn't?

Why would natural selection have brought us to a modern human who will turn all intake into fat if they don't eat within one/two hours of waking? How would that confer a survival advantage?

The only thing I'd agree with is that you must "break-the-fast". If you don't eat, ever, after waking up, you'll eventually die of starvation.

If you eat right away, then on any frequency whatsoever until bedtime, and consume more calories than you spend via basic metabolism plus activity, you will gain weight (and if you aren't doing something to gain muscle, it'll all be fat).

If you eat less than you spend via activity, you will lose weight (and under any sensible circumstances, most of that loss will be fat, but some will likely be lean tissue).

If you exactly balance intake, on that same "whatever schedule you prefer", you'll maintain weight (but if you do nothing to maintain strength, you'll likely gradually lose muscle mass as you age).

What works best is what helps you personally, idiosyncratically and individually achieve the calorie balance that supports your personal goal to gain, lose, or maintain weight while also keeping your health good, your energy level sufficient, and your social connections secure (plus maybe some other ancillary goodness that's important to you).