If eating late is just a myth, then tell me this...

Kimblesnbits
Kimblesnbits Posts: 321 Member
edited September 28 in Health and Weight Loss
Why did i gain 1.5 lbs this morning when i ate just a small bowl of chicken noodle soup and 1 skinny bread stick at 11 pm and didnt sleep till 130 am? My scale is very accurate too...i've noticed and experimented with this whole eating late and not eating after 7, and everytime i eat later, i weigh myself just to see, and i always gain a lb or so in the morning! What the heck?!?!?! i know everyones body is different but i guess i should stick to the no eating past 7 myth for myself at least....just wanna know where everyone else is coming from too...
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Replies

  • StarrDanos
    StarrDanos Posts: 8
    I am with you on not eating late. I have noticed the same thing BUT its mostly because of all the sodium youre eating. That causes me to gain water weight which leades to me crying on the scale in the am. lol
  • rnroadrunner
    rnroadrunner Posts: 402 Member
    you can't gain 1.5 lbs on apiece of bread and chicken noodle soup. it requires 4750 cals to gain that much. It proabably water gain from the high salt content. And YES! it is a myth.:wink:
  • AlexandraLove
    AlexandraLove Posts: 35
    What's the sodium content of the soup?

    Eating late doesn't affect my weight, so the after 7pm rule doesn't apply to me.
  • MissAnjy
    MissAnjy Posts: 2,480 Member
    Sodium is high in soup. You're retaining water. Obviously overnight you weren't drinking water to counteract the sodium, so you'll hold that.

    Also, if you were to eat a huge meal late at night, that meal might not be fully digested by morning. It needs time to digest.

    I always eat past 7pm. Hell, i eat past 9pm a lot of the time. It's never made a difference. It's calories in, calories out. Not when you EAT the calories that mattesr.
  • LizzieBee17
    LizzieBee17 Posts: 123 Member
    you can't gain 1.5 lbs on apiece of bread and chicken noodle soup. it requires 4750 cals to gain that much. It proabably water gain from the high salt content. And YES! it is a myth.:wink:

    yeppers! all that salt is holding on to alot of water.
  • junebug523
    junebug523 Posts: 196
    Betcha anything it's the sodium. There's plenty in chicken noodle soup, unless you are using a reduced sodium kind...and even then...it might be a little high. If you do eat later at night, it's probably a good idea to drink a ton of water to flush it out. Yes, that may mean you need to get up in the middle of the night to pee, but it will also probably help you to have more accurate results in the morning. Sodium, for me, is the #1 culprit if I'm seeing fluctuations in my weight--I can easily weigh in 4-6 lbs higher in a day or two after consuming a lot of sodium. It takes a few days of low sodium eating and tons of water to flush it out.
  • trainguy917
    trainguy917 Posts: 366 Member
    Unless you had a vat of soup and a couple of loaves of bread, you can't gain 1.5 pounds of fat overnight. Your scale may be accurate, but it doesn't tell you what those 1.5 pounds are made of.
  • ladygloria
    ladygloria Posts: 279 Member
    It's all in what you eat then. I eat after 7 most days and always weigh 2-3 lbs less in the morning. Of course,I drink water like a fish. Lol!
  • 2stepz
    2stepz Posts: 814 Member
    Are you concerned with the number on the scale, or are you concerned with fat? Are you weighing in every day? Your weight will fluctuate from day to day, hour to hour.

    Depending on what time you stepped on the scale this morning, please realize that the food you ate last night is still in your digestive tract... along with the extra water it takes to digest and distribute the nutrition from that meal. Also- chicken soup is salty. Sodium causes water retention. It takes extra fluid intake to wash that sodium on out.

    If you eat late at night, eat something that doesn't take as much to process. Fruit is my choice. Its simple sugar and doesn't effect the fluid retention the way something salty does. The soup and breadstick from last night haven't turned to fat and remained with you... not in that short of a timeframe. That extra pound this morning isn't permanent. Your body just isn't through with that soup yet. The longer you fast before stepping on the scale, the less food will be in your system to be weighed.
  • monkeysmum
    monkeysmum Posts: 522 Member
    i notice my weight fluctuate daily as long as i lose on amonday im happy i dont think its eating late that causes im more with the sodium theory i will notice a gain in a morning on days when i had higher sodium foods unless you ate alot of junk foods i dont think the gain will be fat only water retention
  • MyaPapaya75
    MyaPapaya75 Posts: 3,143 Member
    the ideal is to weigh on an empty stomach...if u eat late at night then your scale will show a gain unless the portion is low on sodium and calories..you cant eat soidum high foods and high calories foods at night then get up 6-7hrs later and expect a scale to magically show a loss
  • ashirsch
    ashirsch Posts: 8
    Even if your scale is accurate, our weight still fluctuates.
  • jennyelle
    jennyelle Posts: 2
    To break it down, your body does not stop metabolizing whether or not you are asleep. It is constantly requiring energy, based on your BMR alone. When you go to sleep, your BMR is STILL in effect and it's STILL burning calories. If you are losing weight the right away, aka mini meals every 3 hours, why would you encourage a slow down of your metabolism just because you are asleep? A really great website is www.bodybuilding.com (no, it's not to get "buff") they have tonnes of inforrmation about this....the trick is, WHAT you are eating before bed and how frequently you are drinking water...If youa re going to retain food such as soup (With water) your body will hold onto the water retention and you will obviously gain...that's not to say you are gaining FAT, or losing muscle, your body is just holding the fluid in your system until you sweat it out with exercise and water...

    I PROMISE you, eating after supper is actually GOOD for you..just make sure it's a high protein, low carb mini meal...and not soup :) And the more water you drink, the more you retain but your body will get used to it and you WILL lose..keep up the great work :)

    PS: I have 2 degrees, and have tonnnnnnnnnes of research on this stuff :) Best of luck
  • waterjogger
    waterjogger Posts: 114
    About 15 years ago a dietician told me I was eating too late at night, because we have always been late nighters, since my dh works late. Recently, another nutritionist told me to eat a snack before going to bed, to keep my blood sugar down in the morning. I would agree that it's probably the sodium though-anytime I eat a high sodium meal it seems like I hang on to the water.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
    Sodium in the soup and bread, plus, the earlier you eat, the more time you have to "process" what you ate before you weigh yourself. In other words, you haven't pooped it out yet.
  • Kimblesnbits
    Kimblesnbits Posts: 321 Member
    So next time I go out to eat late, should i stick with a grilled chicken breast or salad? Salad dressing has a lot of sodium too tho....
    And you guys are right, I weighed myself just now out of curiousity, and I lost that 1.5 lbs already hahaha it HAS to do with the sodium im guessing. Ive never really watched my sodium intake much but now i will! THanks so much everyone!
  • suzycreamcheese
    suzycreamcheese Posts: 1,766 Member
    just a daily variation. Theres no way a bowl of soup and a breadstick alone will make you weigh that much more. Its just not science
  • gemco
    gemco Posts: 129
    no, next time you go out late you can still have the noodle soup, just don't get het up about a temporary gain on the scale in the morning. as you say it's already gone again, it just changed where you were in the digestion process at weigh in time. you're not going to pile on lbs of fat because you ate a couple of hours later one night.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,328 Member
    Why did i gain 1.5 lbs this morning when i ate just a small bowl of chicken noodle soup and 1 skinny bread stick at 11 pm and didnt sleep till 130 am? My scale is very accurate too...i've noticed and experimented with this whole eating late and not eating after 7, and everytime i eat later, i weigh myself just to see, and i always gain a lb or so in the morning! What the heck?!?!?! i know everyones body is different but i guess i should stick to the no eating past 7 myth for myself at least....just wanna know where everyone else is coming from too...

    You didn't. At most it was the food still in your digestive track and maybe some water retention depending on how much sodium is in those two things. For that matter if you didn't get a full nights sleep that can affect your weight as well.
  • sharleengc
    sharleengc Posts: 792 Member
    I don't have a problem eating late. Maybe it is just because of my schedule because I don't get off work until 8:30 and by the time I get home and make dinner its about 10. If i weigh myself when my husband gets up (4am), the scale is higher then when i weigh myself when I get up (10). i don't think it has anything to do with how late it is but how long it is between or if you've slept. Like if you went to bed at 1:30 but still up at normal time (like 8 for example) it may be more than if you slept longer
  • kklindsey
    kklindsey Posts: 382 Member
    Depending on what time you stepped on the scale this morning, please realize that the food you ate last night is still in your digestive tract... along with the extra water it takes to digest and distribute the nutrition from that meal. Also- chicken soup is salty. Sodium causes water retention. It takes extra fluid intake to wash that sodium on out.


    what they said.
  • R4z0r4Mm0
    R4z0r4Mm0 Posts: 131
    20 posts with the same answer! You gotta love the support you get from MFP members!!! :)
  • Kimblesnbits
    Kimblesnbits Posts: 321 Member
    20 posts with the same answer! You gotta love the support you get from MFP members!!! :)

    I know!!! Thanks you guys!
  • LisaMarieee
    LisaMarieee Posts: 176 Member
    It's the sodium. Unless you ate 3500+ calories more than you burned, you didn't gain actual weight. Any of that weight gain was probably either water retention, food weight or waste in your body. I've ate at 12AM some nights because I have not had enough calories and still lost weight.
  • shannonpatton
    shannonpatton Posts: 299 Member
    I don't think you really "gained" 1.5 lbs. It was more like the weight of the food. I go through this alot and my husband always has to re assure me :)
  • H8T3D
    H8T3D Posts: 77 Member
    I can weigh myself 20 times through the day and get different readings each time. "Anywhere from 2-5 pounds" Your weight fluctuates throughout the day, this is the main reason they say weigh in once a week around the same time frame.
  • blondie_girl14
    blondie_girl14 Posts: 198 Member
    there is no way I can adhere to the "no eating past 7 rule". I get out of work at 5:00, get home about 6:00, get to the gym around 6:30 (I have a healthy snack on the way). when I get home its between 7:30 and 8:00, so I am eating something at that time.
  • Persipan
    Persipan Posts: 85 Member
    There are plenty of places in the world where eating at 7 would be regarded as freakishly early, and 10 would be perfectly normal...
  • gregthegroove
    gregthegroove Posts: 98
    IMO...Dont weigh yourself every day. Pick one day a week in the morning right when you get up to weigh yourself.
  • jpeterburs88
    jpeterburs88 Posts: 201 Member
    I don't know about the "myth" but I don't eat past 8... not only does my stomach hurt if I eat that late and then go to bed shortly after, but it leaves me no time to burn off the calories I just ate (not necessarily by working them off in the gym, but day-to-day activities). I would rather play it safe and not eat late without a crampy stomach then risk it, hurt and possibly gain. :)
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