Is eating after 6pm bad for you?

suzicooper

I was told last week that eating after 6pm isnt good for you and can slow down weight loss. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this? I would find it really difficult not eating after 6pm due to working full time then getting home and having my one year old to get ready for bed etc so I rarely manage to have my tea before 7pm

fteale

No. Not true. It doesn't matter when you eat.

TavistockToad

i always eat my last meal AFTER 6pm, and its never done my weight loss any harm. as long as you are maintaining a calorie deficit each day it doesnt matter when you eat.

fteale

Sorry, I am going back to this again as the more I think about it the more I think what a completely daft rule! I never go to bed until midnight or 1am, if I didn't eat after 6pm, That would be 6-7 waking hours and 12-14 hours total of fasting every day. That's insane. We never eat our evening meal until 8pm, sometimes later.

claire_xox

No it is not bad for you.

killagb

It doesn't matter when you eat.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/447011-eating-late-weight-gain/ <check this article out

Elleinnz

I would hardly ever eat before 8pm - and on gym nights very close to 9 pm.....and I have lost 100 lbs over the past year.....

Personally I will "try" and eat dinner at least 3 hours before I go to bed....but if it does not happen I do not stress it.....and I would have late night snacks even later

deepac456

Yes!

I had experienced this thing. If you don't eat anything after 6 you tend to lose more weight.

LH2011

I eat right up til I go to bed as I'm a evening snacker, always have been and always will be :laugh:. I've lost 26lbs and have been maintaining for 2 months so I would say no it does not affect me

loubulou2209

I would have thought it depended on your lifestyle and the times you're normally awake. People on lates for example may eat their final meal at 10pm but not go to bed for hours afterwards.

I work until 6pm most days and still go swimming, dancing etc on a number of those days. I still had the lifestyle at my smallest and I can't see that it did me any harm.

There is some truth I believe that your food struggles to burn some foods and eating them right before bed is not recommended but if it works for you, I wouldn't worry too much.

xjlishey1

It really depends on what time you go to bed. You should not eat within 2 hours of you turning in for the night. This is because your body has not had time to digest your food. When you food does not just digest before you lay down it can effect your weightloss. For me I go to bed early so I try not to eat after 6pm. If I was to go to bed at 9 I wouldn't eat after 7.

goron59

Assuming that everyone lives exactly the same kind of life, has meals and activities at the same time, is of the same age, weight, gender, levels of health and has the same goals.... that's probably bad for you as you'll be forever following bad advice :-)

Digestion, of course is not affected by how horizontal you are, so don't let that worry you either.

lacroyx

no. I work graveyard hours. I eat at varying hours because of it and I still lost weight.

PBJunkie

Yes!

I had experienced this thing. If you don't eat anything after 6 you tend to lose more weight.

Not true at all! You can eat whenever you like as long as you stay withing your calorie range. The deficit is what determines how much weight you will lose, the bigger the deficit the bigger the rate of fat loss...but also know that with a big deficit your run the risk of loose skin and you might lose muscle mass as well.

jellybaby84

I try not to eat before bed but I don't stress about it if I have to because I know that, scientifically, it makes no difference.

When I was weighing myself every day I found that I DID get better results the earlier I ate but I was taking it to ridiculous extremes (at one point I had a no eating after 3pm rule!) so I imagine all I was seeing in the mornings was a dehydration drop or something.

ziggy67

Thats the first I've heard of it. How can eating after 6pm be bad for you? We all get up, go to bed, eat our meals at all different times of the day to suit our lifestyles.. so the 6pm rule could not possibly apply to everyone. I think it would make more sense to say that you should not go to bed on a full stomach... So if you go to bed at 7 or 8pm then eating anything heavy after 6pm would not be advisable. Hope that makes sense.

vanessaclarkgbr

I've heard it and was told by my PT in the gym no carbs after 3. That proved to be pretty impossible as like a few others posted here, if a gym night I'm not in until 9, so I gave up on the carbs and after 6 rule and have still been losing. I don't know about if some of this is perfect world rules, but who's got that scenario?

Acg67

Absolutely! there is a magic fairy that shuttles all calories eaten after 6pm to fat stores


not srs

Black_Swan

It surely did NOT stop me from loosing over 18lbs. So... I dont think it is important. I think it is important to eat small meals during all the day, during night, whenever you are awake, you just have to plan it not to go over calories and voila!

IronSmasher

It's after midnight, and it's mogwai they're thinking of

surfrgrl1

It's a long long time between 6pm and when you eat breakfast. I most always have a small snack before hitting the hay. Glass of milk, piece of toast, just something small.

lil_pulp

If it's not common sense, pretty much any one-size-fits-all weight loss "rule" is BS.

rileysowner

If I have the calories I will eat a meal even just before going to sleep. I think most people are under the impression your metabolism shuts down for the night. That is not true in any way. In fact at night your body is busy working hard and will use that food for it. Of your total daily calorie burn, only a small amount (unless you are very active) is from your activity. My total expected calorie burn for the day is something like 2070 calories, and my BMR is 1652, that means my daily activity only accounts for 418 calories for the day. That is only 20% of the total number of calories burned by my body in a day. That means 80% of the calories in burn in a normal day are burned by my body just doing the things that keep it alive, nothing more. Eat whenever you want and enjoy it as long as you have the calories left.

Some people will probably chime in saying they ate late at night and the next morning they weighted more. That is because the food is still digesting and in your system. You have not put on fat, you simply have not eliminated your last meal yet, and it can take 8 hours for a meal to totally digest. This is sort of like someone weighing themselves just after a meal and thinking they gained weight. All the gain was the weight of the food and water in their system. Nothing more.

Here is a good article about this topic http://www.leangains.com/2011/06/is-late-night-eating-better-for-fat.html

ItsMeLori

It may show up on the scales if you weigh daily but over all not it doesn't make a difference.

caroltina

I have read a lot of articles that say our body doesn't burn calories any differently no matter what time of day - excepting after exercise!!!

IMYarnCraz33

I eat when I'm hungry no matter the time
although I cannot eat right before bed or I get heartburn.
(not a bad thing anyway). But I have not had a problem losing weight.
I don't usually go to bed until at least 11pm but am up sometimes until 2am.

TheBraveryLover

Not bad for me.