Evening eating...
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rebbylicious
Posts: 621 Member
I have long heard the rule “don’t eat after 7” or “no carbs after 7” but I haven’t come across any information to back that up. I would love to know who believes/disbelieves in that rule and why? I was always a calories in- calories out kind of person. But dammit I want a glass of wine and some popcorn tonight.
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Unless you have a medical reason to do so (reflux, for example), there is no reason to quit eating at a specific time. Personally, I find it easier to sleep with a little something to digest. It's not uncommon for me to eat a little something just before bed. It hasn't effected my weight loss.9
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Since people tend to snack or overeat in the evening, it can be easier for some to lose weight by putting a time limit on it. So that is probably where the rule came from. However it really is down to calories. I don't follow that rule at all. I've had food right before bed and I've also had snacks every two hours (including during the night) and still lost weight.8
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Thank you for the responses. Last time I was regularly tracking I had extremely slow loss and always wondered if my evening snack was doing it. The calories were always on point and I was very conservative about logging workouts.0
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rebbylicious wrote: »Thank you for the responses. Last time I was regularly tracking I had extremely slow loss and always wondered if my evening snack was doing it. The calories were always on point and I was very conservative about logging workouts.
Logging errors are very common and they can slow progress. Other times, it's expectations being too high. Time of day you are eating isn't the issue. Were you using a food scale, measuring cups, scanning packages and using that weight, or just eyeballing foods. Were you confirming that the entries you were using to log are accurate? I know these sound silly, but they can make a big difference in your progress. Additionally, if you were given the 1200 calorie target, it is possible, depending on height and weight, that it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs/week (I'm guessing that's what you aimed for, but it's not always a reasonable target, forgive my assumption).4 -
They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.4 -
The timing of what you eat has very minimal impact on anything, other than the mentioned acid reflux and such.
I think a lot of people have that wine and popcorn you mention, but after they have eaten adequate food for the day. So they believe it works, and it might for them. But you could just as easily eat lighter in the day hours, and munch (or drink) later at night, and still lose weight.
For the vast majority of people, lack of results is due to logging errors. Missing things, overestimating calorie burns, underestimating portions, etc.
But timing... not really. It's after 9:30 PM here and we are just getting ready to eat dinner. And for me, that will be 1.000 calories or so. And I'll probably snack before going to sleep later.
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They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
This is why it's good to eat ice cream in bed... no crumbs. :laugh:11 -
They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
Or choking on that last mouthful of food you haven't swallowed yet when you fall asleep. 1 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
This is why it's good to eat ice cream in bed... no crumbs. :laugh:
But you may end up with sticky sheets.lynn_glenmont wrote: »They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
Or choking on that last mouthful of food you haven't swallowed yet when you fall asleep.
It might be okay. I ate a fair amount of chicken and sweet potato while sleep walking April 2018. I am not sure exactly how much because I did not sleep log I only sleep ate.6 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
This is why it's good to eat ice cream in bed... no crumbs. :laugh:
But you may end up with sticky sheets.lynn_glenmont wrote: »They myth may have different explanations. I understood it to be that food needs to be digested before you go to sleep. If not, all undigested food will be converted to fat.
The reality is that unless food causes sleep issues, acid reflux, or crumbs in bed you can eat right up until the time you fall asleep.
Or choking on that last mouthful of food you haven't swallowed yet when you fall asleep.
It might be okay. I ate a fair amount of chicken and sweet potato while sleep walking April 2018. I am not sure exactly how much because I did not sleep log I only sleep ate.
The dogs will clean up anything I drop. :bigsmile:2 -
nutmegoreo wrote: »rebbylicious wrote: »Thank you for the responses. Last time I was regularly tracking I had extremely slow loss and always wondered if my evening snack was doing it. The calories were always on point and I was very conservative about logging workouts.
Logging errors are very common and they can slow progress. Other times, it's expectations being too high. Time of day you are eating isn't the issue. Were you using a food scale, measuring cups, scanning packages and using that weight, or just eyeballing foods. Were you confirming that the entries you were using to log are accurate? I know these sound silly, but they can make a big difference in your progress. Additionally, if you were given the 1200 calorie target, it is possible, depending on height and weight, that it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs/week (I'm guessing that's what you aimed for, but it's not always a reasonable target, forgive my assumption).
No I had my thing set for .5 lbs per week and I was losing about 1/4th lb per week. I was measuring and weighing things. Also I found many “already logged” foods that were incorrect (low) and would then scan in the correct one. Some days I would over estimate what I ate just to be sure, and I never logged my weight lifting workouts, only cardio.
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rebbylicious wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »rebbylicious wrote: »Thank you for the responses. Last time I was regularly tracking I had extremely slow loss and always wondered if my evening snack was doing it. The calories were always on point and I was very conservative about logging workouts.
Logging errors are very common and they can slow progress. Other times, it's expectations being too high. Time of day you are eating isn't the issue. Were you using a food scale, measuring cups, scanning packages and using that weight, or just eyeballing foods. Were you confirming that the entries you were using to log are accurate? I know these sound silly, but they can make a big difference in your progress. Additionally, if you were given the 1200 calorie target, it is possible, depending on height and weight, that it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs/week (I'm guessing that's what you aimed for, but it's not always a reasonable target, forgive my assumption).
No I had my thing set for .5 lbs per week and I was losing about 1/4th lb per week. I was measuring and weighing things. Also I found many “already logged” foods that were incorrect (low) and would then scan in the correct one. Some days I would over estimate what I ate just to be sure, and I never logged my weight lifting workouts, only cardio.
How long were you tracking for? When I started weight lifting, my weight loss stalled for about 6 weeks. It was frustrating! Were you eating any of the cardio calories burned? .5lb/week is so easily influenced by many different things, salt, exercise, any inaccuracies in food (even the packages can be off on their stated calories), etc. Unfortunately, what you are talking about is a difference of 125 calories per day. Sounds like you were doing pretty good. I still doubt that the time you were eating was influencing this.5 -
I've lost over 40 pounds eating a significant amount of calories at night, usually after 9pm. Nigtt eating does not hinder weight loss, unless the calories are not planned for and they cause you to go over your goal.the difference between 1/2 a pound a week and 1/4 pound a week is 125 calories a day, and can be explained by a lot of different things. But night eating isn't one of them.4
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rebbylicious wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »rebbylicious wrote: »Thank you for the responses. Last time I was regularly tracking I had extremely slow loss and always wondered if my evening snack was doing it. The calories were always on point and I was very conservative about logging workouts.
Logging errors are very common and they can slow progress. Other times, it's expectations being too high. Time of day you are eating isn't the issue. Were you using a food scale, measuring cups, scanning packages and using that weight, or just eyeballing foods. Were you confirming that the entries you were using to log are accurate? I know these sound silly, but they can make a big difference in your progress. Additionally, if you were given the 1200 calorie target, it is possible, depending on height and weight, that it isn't possible to lose 2 lbs/week (I'm guessing that's what you aimed for, but it's not always a reasonable target, forgive my assumption).
No I had my thing set for .5 lbs per week and I was losing about 1/4th lb per week. I was measuring and weighing things. Also I found many “already logged” foods that were incorrect (low) and would then scan in the correct one. Some days I would over estimate what I ate just to be sure, and I never logged my weight lifting workouts, only cardio.
If you are using the database entries for your walking calorie estimates then they are too high - they are gross calorie estimates and you really want to use net calorie estimates for walking.0 -
I rarely have dinner before 8 and usually go to be right after. Hasn't hindered my weight loss in the slightest.0
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Over my nearly nine years of consistent tracking, the time of day I have eaten has never affected my weight loss or maintenance. Over the past couple of years I have tended to eat a larger portion of my calories later in the evening and eat a significant portion of them, a quarter to a third of my total daily calories, between 9 and 10 p.m. before bed.0
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I do my best to ensure that I am done with eating NLT 7 PM and nothing after, but that is only because my biggest problem is binge eating at night followed by food amnesia. Keeping to a timeframe helps to keep that bad behavior in check and my logs honest.0
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I'm a night snacker. But I log in the wine and popcorn calories when I log in my dinner foods so I know what I'm really about to do. The key for me: making sure that I log in the butter that popcorn is swimming in.0
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