Eating after 6 p.m. and cheat day

Pattie74

Ok, 2 questions...I seem to do better eating my dinner early. I'm wondering if this is psychological or is there really something to not eating after 6 p.m.? Also, I've heard people have had success with eating the goal calories most of the week, but having a cheat day...what do you think?

deadyankee

There's no magic laws of physics that apply with these little tricks etc. Your body will consume, store and use calories irrespective of what time of day or what day of the week you add them to your body

DemoraFairy

I always eat immediately before going to bed (or I get hungry and can't sleep), and don't seem to be having a problem with weight loss. Whenever the subject of eating after a certain time comes up on here, most people tend to say it's just a myth. Even if the scale shows a higher weight if you've eaten late the night before, it's just undigested food or something like that, most likely not actual weight gain.

Also having a cheat day is probably fine, just as long as you don't eat so much you eat back all the deficit you've built up over the week. All you need is a deficit, so if you're still in one you'll lose weight, though it'll be a bit slower. I have cheat days occasionally when I eat whatever I want and ignore calories completely, but nowhere near as often as once a week.

eyecandyrayce

I leave for work at 7am, get off work at 5pm, go to the gym and leave there by 7pm so I usually don't have dinner until 8pm and then in bed by 10pm. I have had no issues with this.

I also allow myself a cheat day but I earn that day by working out during the week and not eating back my calories to create a deficit for that cheat day. I still log my food even though I went way over so I can look back and see if that cheat day is causing a bad trend.

rayfu75

Time of day you eat doesn't matter. I eat when I get home from work 7am and I'm about to lay down in a bit for the night (day).
Cheat days I don't do them. If I want to have something during the week I'll fit it in my macros (or try to) I also don't like to eat back any calories unless I really trained hard and I don't have to keep my weight in check. It works for me.

beccagable

I once heard someone say "Calories can't tell time" and that's how I look at it.

I've also read that a calorie is a calorie when you're just trying to lose weight but a calorie is not just a calorie when you're trying to be healthy. Which is interesting. So if you eat a slice of pizza at 11pm as long as you have the calories for it, you should be fine. Personal experience has proven this to be true for me at least.

cwolfman13

Ok, 2 questions...I seem to do better eating my dinner early. I'm wondering if this is psychological or is there really something to not eating after 6 p.m.? Also, I've heard people have had success with eating the goal calories most of the week, but having a cheat day...what do you think?

Thankfully, the whole 6 PM thing is a complete myth...I say thankfully because I'm not even home from work on weeknights, so I'd be screwed. I don't know who these people are (other than retired people) who are eating by 6 PM every night...we usually manage that on the weekend, but it's never happened on a weeknight.

I personally never did the cheat day route...I just kept a more manageable calorie deficit throughout the week instead of being so aggressive as to feeling like I needed a cheat day. I found a 500 calorie (1Lb per week loss rate) to be pretty much painless. All a cheat day is doing is decreasing your net deficit for the week...personally, if I was going to do that I would rather just eat a little more throughout the week and maintain a more reasonable calorie deficit all of the time.

LoraF83

Ok, 2 questions...I seem to do better eating my dinner early. I'm wondering if this is psychological or is there really something to not eating after 6 p.m.? Also, I've heard people have had success with eating the goal calories most of the week, but having a cheat day...what do you think?

Thankfully, the whole 6 PM thing is a complete myth...I say thankfully because I'm not even home from work on weeknights, so I'd be screwed. I don't know who these people are (other than retired people) who are eating by 6 PM every night...we usually manage that on the weekend, but it's never happened on a weeknight.

I personally never did the cheat day route...I just kept a more manageable calorie deficit throughout the week instead of being so aggressive as to feeling like I needed a cheat day. I found a 500 calorie (1Lb per week loss rate) to be pretty much painless. All a cheat day is doing is decreasing your net deficit for the week...personally, if I was going to do that I would rather just eat a little more throughout the week and maintain a more reasonable calorie deficit all of the time.

^This. But I'd like to add that the occasional holiday or special event will not ruin you. If you want to go all out at a fancy anniversary dinner, do it. It's one day. Get back on track the next day. You don't need a weekly cheat day, but don't feel bad about the rare event either.

vslnrunner

The time of day you eat has nothing to do with gaining or losing weight. The only reason not to eat late at night before bed is that it can cause heart burn in some people.