Wedding yesterday and ate late/scale effects?

OAS5

Now this a purely curious question because I did excellent at the wedding yesterday. We had a wedding yesterday that started a bit late. Cocktail hour started at 7. 8 we went into the main reception area and I want to say we ate dinner at about 9 o'clock. Since starting my cliche "lifestyle change" July 2018 I eat dinner at between 5 and 7 and do not eat a thing past 8 o'clock so this was a bit different for me.
Now I will say I did awesome at the wedding, much better than I thought I would actually. Cocktail hour I had a tiny bit of Mac N' Cheese and then I had some shrimp cocktail but not cocktail sauce so it was just steamed shrimp I guess. Dinner I had Salmon stuffed with fish. That was just a tad creamy in a sauce of some kind but not bad at all. For dessert all I had was mixed nuts. That was the entire night for me so I'm quite proud.
Anyway I stepped on the scale this morning and I was the same or within the range I should be. 2 ounces difference from yesterday. In general how does eating late effect the scale? Is it as simple as saying, you ate late so your digestion was different or later so the scale might be off a bit at your regular weigh in? Or is it something more than that?

Maxxitt

I don't know that "late eating" affects the scale at all. If it does, it would not be a meaningful effect, just a matter of the timing of digestion/elimination.

LyndaBSS

It takes food roughly 36 -72 hours for food to go through the digestive tract, depending on the individual. I know when I weigh every morning, I'm seeing the effects of what I ate 2 days ago, not the day before.

OAS5

Yeah that makes sense, thanks.

NovusDies

Your scale was basically the same for 2 days so why are you thinking that the food had an impact?

OAS5

NovusDies wrote: »

Your scale was basically the same for 2 days so why are you thinking that the food had an impact?

No, I said that in my post. I was just asking in general about eating late, digestion and weighing at your normal time. I'm quite happy with the steadiness over the last week. Between 201 and 202 basically for a week or more. Goal is 190.

NovusDies

You were not really eating late if you were concerned about digestion time before weighing.

lgfrie

I usually get a +1 to +2 pound reading in the morning if I ate dinner late.

I guess part of it is solid food digestion, but I think most of it is sodium-water balancing. The longer the body has had to process the sodium from a meal, the more water it gives up. The more recently you've eaten, the more water is being retained to balance the sodium.

If I eat a salty snack like potato chips at 11 pm, which weighs almost nothing, I can wake up 2-3 pounds heavier. But if I eat a banana, which actually weighs a pound, I wake up no heavier the next morning. The banana has disappeared! I sometimes wonder where that one pound banana went so quickly.

If you eat a very low sodium dinner very late, you will probably not see a scale increase in the morning. It's the salt.

OAS5

lgfrie wrote: »

I usually get a +1 to +2 pound reading in the morning if I ate dinner late.

I guess part of it is solid food digestion, but I think most of it is sodium-water balancing. The longer the body has had to process the sodium from a meal, the more water it gives up. The more recently you've eaten, the more water is being retained to balance the sodium.

If I eat a salty snack like potato chips at 11 pm, which weighs almost nothing, I can wake up 2-3 pounds heavier. But if I eat a banana, which actually weighs a pound, I wake up no heavier the next morning. The banana has disappeared! I sometimes wonder where that one pound banana went so quickly.

If you eat a very low sodium dinner very late, you will probably not see a scale increase in the morning. It's the salt.

Thank you very much for that post. Sodium/salt really is a pain. It can mess with your head, mess with the scale but really can't cause weight gain persay. They want you to keep it so low too, 2300 a day is tough most of the time.

Lillymoo01

The time you eat would have nowhere near the effect as the salt content or the actual size of the meal would as it takes a few days for food to be fully digested and eliminated. If you ate a significant amount more in volume you could notice a small difference in the scale the following morning, but even then I couldn't imagine it being anywhere near as much as the fluid retention caused by the additional salt (or carbs if they were significantly higher).

I do admit though that weight fluctuations intrigue and fascinate me.

OAS5

Ok, this brings up an interesting question I have had for a long time. If you didn't eat the whole day but you just ate dinner and that dinner was exactly what you normally eat for the day in calories would that affect you? Meaning you ate no breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, just water throughout the day but at dinner you are ate 2,000 calories in one sitting which is your normal calorie intake. Would that affect you in a positive or negative way?

Hannahwalksfar

If I eat late I normally go up a bit but I assume it’s just extra food in the digestive tract

snickerscharlie

Cavallaro65 wrote: »

Ok, this brings up an interesting question I have had for a long time. If you didn't eat the whole day but you just ate dinner and that dinner was exactly what you normally eat for the day in calories would that affect you? Meaning you ate no breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, just water throughout the day but at dinner you are ate 2,000 calories in one sitting which is your normal calorie intake. Would that affect you in a positive or negative way?

Weight loss/gain/maintenance is 100% about the amount of calories you consume *over time* and not about when in the day you consume them.

NovusDies

Cavallaro65 wrote: »

Ok, this brings up an interesting question I have had for a long time. If you didn't eat the whole day but you just ate dinner and that dinner was exactly what you normally eat for the day in calories would that affect you? Meaning you ate no breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, just water throughout the day but at dinner you are ate 2,000 calories in one sitting which is your normal calorie intake. Would that affect you in a positive or negative way?

Possible Negatives:

1) Harder to hit a healthy calorie amount in one meal
2) Harder to hit nutritional needs in one meal
3) Harder on mental state because it is a lot of waking hours between meals
4) Harder on hunger management
5) Harder on energy management
6) Missed social interactions during meals you are not eating

Possible Positives:

1) Less concern over food
2) Less prep and cooking
3) Very large filling meal

What will be absolutely neutral is weight loss. I know this from experience if you count lunch as the one meal instead of dinner.

AnnPT77

lgfrie wrote: »

I usually get a +1 to +2 pound reading in the morning if I ate dinner late.

I guess part of it is solid food digestion, but I think most of it is sodium-water balancing. The longer the body has had to process the sodium from a meal, the more water it gives up. The more recently you've eaten, the more water is being retained to balance the sodium.

If I eat a salty snack like potato chips at 11 pm, which weighs almost nothing, I can wake up 2-3 pounds heavier. But if I eat a banana, which actually weighs a pound, I wake up no heavier the next morning. The banana has disappeared! I sometimes wonder where that one pound banana went so quickly.

If you eat a very low sodium dinner very late, you will probably not see a scale increase in the morning. It's the salt.

You exhaled it in your sleep (or exhaled some combination equivalent to its physical weight and caloric content). Really.