Eating within an hour of waking?

Options
2»

Replies

  • lamps1303
    lamps1303 Posts: 432 Member
    Options
    hello community [:

    this is my first post and i've been on mfp since last year and have made progress since. i felt that my progress had been pretty stagnant and woohoo i started a fitness club in a local community yesterday - and it was so awesome :)

    well other than getting us to work out together they also supplied us with some nutritional talk which got me confused. so yes, please let me know if it's true that we need to eat within an hour of waking up?

    They claim that it's to fuel our metabolism & kick start our body systems.

    Another question: My BMR as measured by the body scan machine said 1280 whereas, if calculated by formula it is 1358. I'm a tad confused by difference in measurement. Please shed some light on this, thanks! ^-^

    No. Eat when you want. There is no magic formula to calculate your BMR....They are all estimates. Want to know your exact BMR? ...Eat VERY consistently at one number for a month..If you lost eat more, if you gained eat less.... Once you stay the same you know your BMR.

    I think you're confusing BMR with TDEE.

    BMR (basal metabolic rate) is the number of calories your body burns at complete rest - i.e. how much you would burn if you stayed in bed all day and didnt move a muscle.

    TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) is your BMR + exercise/activity

    ETA: You will be at maintenance if you eat your TDEE, not BMR. To lose/gain you would reduce/increase TDEE by X%
  • hermann341
    hermann341 Posts: 443 Member
    Options
    Nutrient timing is of a lot less importance than getting the basics right. Make sure it is something you can adhere to rather than someone else's plan.

    ^This^

    I do the majority of my exercising in the morning, and prefer to eat afterwards after getting cleaned up. The only exceptions tend to be the day of a running event. If I'm up 2 hours or more before an event, I will eat my usual breakfast before running.
  • W31RD0
    W31RD0 Posts: 173 Member
    Options
    Anything referring to eating that uses the term "kick start" is bro science.

    ^^^This.

    Also be wary if you see "Toxins" or "Cleanse".

    Eating first thing in the morning and smaller meals works not because of some metabolic magic happening, it's because it can give you more control over each meal at a more granular level. People losing weight may feel less hungry if they space out their meals; they end up in a binge less often. People seeking to gain weight (such as myself) feel less bloated when they arn't trying to pile down >1000 calories in a single meal.
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,306 Member
    Options
    My two cents… I did notice when I ate breakfast.. I seemed to lose more weight. That is not because it was a big plan.. i just made the connection that i lost weight when I did eat breakfast and stalled when i stopped…

    however…when i eat breakfast early..it starts my appetite for the entire day and I don't like that. . So.. i'd wait to eat …and my weightloss was much smaller.
  • tuckeychicken
    tuckeychicken Posts: 167 Member
    Options
    I think you should eat when you feel ready; however, I'm a believer in eating a mostly clean diet and trying to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Space them out evenly and this will help your metabolism stay strong and working all day long!!
    I mainly agree with this, but I do believe you need to give your body something before you get it moving even just a good piece of fruit. Eat with 30 minutes of waking. Doing things through out the day without eating is like asking your car to run without gas.:drinker:
  • W31RD0
    W31RD0 Posts: 173 Member
    Options
    My two cents… I did notice when I ate breakfast.. I seemed to lose more weight. That is not because it was a big plan.. i just made the connection that i lost weight when I did eat breakfast and stalled when i stopped…

    however…when i eat breakfast early..it starts my appetite for the entire day and I don't like that. . So.. i'd wait to eat …and my weightloss was much smaller.

    So you were more hungry but you more successful at losing weight? Maybe you need to allow yourself the hunger and just prepare a veggie dish for those times to snack on.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
    Options
    If you're advised to eat first thing, do it. See how it works.

    I can say that it's entirely possible to skip breakfast and lose weight. I never, ever eat during the first hour of being awake. I very often don't eat for the first three hours and if I do, it's something light, like fruit.

    But you should always try to do what they advise and see how it works. I wouldn't knock it till I tried it. :)
  • Jennypoo76
    Jennypoo76 Posts: 10 Member
    Options
    I don't eat breakfast until after I get to work. I get to work around 7:45 after waking up at 5:45. I can't eat first thing upon waking up. Sometimes it take me 10 minutes to each breakfast and others, like today, I'm still snacking on my breakfast but it's because I eat dry cereal some days and it just works for me to eat a little through out the morning until I finish. My focus is weight loss but also adding iron and decreasing the cholesterol intake so I eat my larger meals at breakfast and lunch with a smaller dinner. Some days I want a midafternoon snack and some days I don't. I eat when I'm hungry. Last night for dinner, I had very little because I just wasn't hungry.

    Just play with a few times and amounts and see what works for you.
  • ConnorS879
    ConnorS879 Posts: 47 Member
    Options
    I managed to get great fat loss results by exercising in the morning and having something small immediately after (pineapple slices and a protein shake) and then having a low carb lunch and then some carbs with my dinner
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    Options
    I think you should eat when you feel ready; however, I'm a believer in eating a mostly clean diet and trying to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Space them out evenly and this will help your metabolism stay strong and working all day long!!
    I mainly agree with this, but I do believe you need to give your body something before you get it moving even just a good piece of fruit. Eat with 30 minutes of waking. Doing things through out the day without eating is like asking your car to run without gas.:drinker:

    Fortunately we have this thing called body fat which, to go along with your analogy, would be the gas in the car.
  • tinatwin1971
    tinatwin1971 Posts: 16 Member
    Options
    I have to get up at 6am in the week and leave for work at 7. I can just about manage a cup of tea that early in the morning, but the thought of eating anything that early fills me with dread. I normally have some sort of breakfast when I get to work at 8, normally fruit, or cereal bars etc. Weekends I don't tend to wake up till later, so will eat closer to when I get up.
  • Kate7294
    Kate7294 Posts: 783 Member
    Options
    I think you should eat when you feel ready; however, I'm a believer in eating a mostly clean diet and trying to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Space them out evenly and this will help your metabolism stay strong and working all day long!!

    In my case where I have PCOS and was "past tense" pre-diabetic I agree with above. In the case of everyone else...it may not be a concern. You need to figure out for yourself what works for you.
    I do find if I go to the gym I need to eat a little something prior to working out ( was feeling dizzy) and again after. Good luck!
  • aceink64
    aceink64 Posts: 21 Member
    Options
    It does not mean a slower one but it does mean that it might not be as efficient, do to the fact that it is most efficient when it is in the right sugar range, and not in a peak or valley, eating more often and smaller meals keeps your system more balanced. However it is hard for most people to eat this way since the US culture is not designed around that.
  • brightsideofpink
    brightsideofpink Posts: 1,018 Member
    Options
    There have been fairly recent studies that have shown equal weight loss in people who eat breakfast when compared with those who do not. So I would suggest just following your own body cues. I used to be a big breakfast eater- if I didn't have it I felt very off. But since I've started to exercise in the morning, it has curbed my craving for early meals. I eat very light in the morning and save my calories for lunch and dinner, with small snacks in between, and I have been losing weight at a healthy pace of about 1lb per week while still maintaining good blood glucose levels.

    That said, and in line with what another poster has added, timing of meals does matter quite a bit if you are diabetic or borderline. This has to do with how the body processes glucose and creates insulin, and where and how it will create sugars if none are available and furthermore, how increased insulin effects fat storage. But I won't get into that as I don't think thats a concern for most people who are just trying to get healthy/lose weight/stay healthy.

    I know it sounds like a commercial, but everybody should really take the time to get a good professional assessment of their health, including screening of blood pressure. Obese people (and the range for this is probably lower than you think) should test their A1C at least once per year.
  • cindytsx
    cindytsx Posts: 3 Member
    Options
    Thanks for all the replies. Having a good read here. :wink:
    There's no time limit on eating. Many people on here practice intermittent fasting and don't eat until the late afternoon.
    You eat when you feel ready, choose things which fit into your calorie budget (weigh them on a food scale), and your metabolism will be just fine. Really. :flowerforyou:
    Your metabolism doesn't suddenly stop when you go to sleep. Your body doesn't need to be "kick started". Eat your first meal when you choose.
    I don't eat until I'm hungry, which sometimes is around lunch time. It hasn't stopped my weight loss schedule one bit. Calories in versus calories out, it doesn't matter what time you eat them.

    Yes I totally agree with the three of you! That is why I'm looking out for research/studies/some form of evidence that supports the idea of eating without adhering to the time of the day. I'm pretty sure I've read it in Kimberly Synder's book about this.
    I don't know anything about how accurate the body scan bmr measurement is. I do know that the formula gives you an estimate only.. And the most accurate formula takes body fat percentages into consideration, which might be part of the difference.

    Yeah, that was why I was kinda sad - considering the fact that my actual BMR is lower than the calculated BMR. Now I'm really trying hard to gain muscle mass to increase my BMR :)
    Although, in general the simple "eat only before 8," "eat breakfast within an hour," "eat early," eat late," etc. recommendations that have been around forever rest on myth and guesswork. That's why many of us will pooh-pooh them.

    BUT -- and it's a big but -- very recent research is showing some evidence that time of eating and circadian rhythms may make a difference. The research is at a very early state. Consider this abstract sentence from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23357955:

    "There is emerging literature demonstrating a relationship between the timing of feeding and weight regulation in animals. However, whether the timing of food intake influences the success of a weight-loss diet in humans is unknown."

    In other words, there is some evidence that it does make a difference when and what you eat how soon or after you exercise and breakfast content and size may make a difference. Also, adequate sleep may have a greater effect on obesity and weight loss.

    Don't leap to conclusions yet and suspect anybody who tells you that something is absolutely known about this at this point.

    Thanks for your share on the article abstract, I've completed reading the entire article here (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3756673/) and indeed, interesting findings but it lacks statistical significance due to the minimal population size. The study is rather skewered too :x But hey, I've read some interesting facts, so thank you :)
    ...regarding the practice of mini meals rather than a few larger meals...that seems to work well for many people. For me it's the fastest route to feeling vaguely hungry all of the time and never fully satisfied, and experiencing some mild emotional distress when I eat with friends or family who eat a "regular" sized meal. No thanks.

    I can't handle mini meals for nuts, I just snack :P
    .. (eating small meals) give you more control over each meal at a more granular level. People losing weight may feel less hungry if they space out their meals; they end up in a binge less often. People seeking to gain weight (such as myself) feel less bloated when they arn't trying to pile down >1000 calories in a single meal.

    yes totally agree, thats why I take small snacks in between to keep those hunger pangs lying low. I do realize I snack more when I'm bored :/
    I think you should eat when you feel ready; however, I'm a believer in eating a mostly clean diet and trying to eat 5-6 small meals a day. Space them out evenly and this will help your metabolism stay strong and working all day long!!
    I mainly agree with this, but I do believe you need to give your body something before you get it moving even just a good piece of fruit. Eat with 30 minutes of waking. Doing things through out the day without eating is like asking your car to run without gas.:drinker:

    Fortunately we have this thing called body fat which, to go along with your analogy, would be the gas in the car.

    HAHAHA THIS ^ .. well this adds on to another reason why it's not a MUST to eat within an hour of waking up >__<

    Thanks for all the awesome & interesting replies. I'd likely not adhere to eating within an hour of waking up - purely due to logistical issues ie. get out of house so that I'd be able to get my butt on time for work:P

    Personally, I've also noticed that if I do grab breakfast (0.25 cup of oats) prior to leaving the house -- I'd usually sleep while commuting to work which is very likely due to the sugar rush. /: I find it more feasible to have my breakfast at my work desk, & sip on some pippin hot coffee.

    Thanks again, let's keep going & work hard at achieving our goals. Fight on!

Categories