Eating Late.... Problem or not?

brittanyjeanxo

Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

I'd like to see proof of this, please. Do you have an article you could link me to?

Jessicaruby

Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

^ This is entirely false, no offense.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Exactly.

So with this BS, if I go to Washington from Iowa, then I should stop eating at 5pm over there since my body knows what time it is and time zone?

SergeantSunshine_reused

Your body cant tell time but it has its own pace and usually if you eat during the day regularly then by 7 you should stop. Its logic. By 7pm you should be done your 3 to 5 portions anyway so eating healthy but in the wrong proportions affects you negatively.

I can see reason in both.

No, It is incorrect.
It does not matter at all. What does matter is a daily calorie deficit. So that fat oxidation exceeds fat storage.
Your body never stops working.

minnesota_deere

Hi there, I recently started up MFP on January 1st and have lost 15, (yes 1-5) pounds so far. I love it but i have a few questions as far as dieting goes. I was told by some people that eating late is the biggest source of weight gain because of the fact that you're metabolism shuts down once you go to sleep. But recently, I was told by a friend that it's a myth and the human body will still burn calories while sleeping. For the past 3 weeks, i haven't been eating past 8PM (CT) and let me tell you as a college student, that's not easy. But I've obviously seen some results, so I'd hate to change my habits so far. Any ideas or thoughts?

I have found out the last 2 days i eat dinner at 7:30-8:30pm it seems to keep me from looking for a snack before i go to sleep, it works for me, it never even concerned me about getting fat while i sleep, my daily calorie intake is balanced. again this works for me.

SergeantSunshine_reused

The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

If your idea of being 'healthy' is to just maintain calorie counts then yes.

My idea of healthy is hitting macronutrients and micronutrients. And not spreading false information. You can encourage people to eat healthy which is obviously a good idea, but saying that your weight would change a with healthy vs not food choice is spreading/creating more myths. Yay for knowledge!

teagin2002

If you want to eat your entire days calories right before bed, it makes no difference.

Meal timing is irrelevant. The reason late night eating gets a bad rep is because people tend to eat their daily allotment of cals in the daytime, AND THEN eat more late at night. They blame the late night eating for the weight gain, when they have simply just created a calorie excess.

This.

These^^^^

This ^^^ I eat at night when I am hungry, I have even woken up hungry on some days and ate something, most of the time I am not though.
My hubby doesn't eat after 7 or 8pm but that's because of heart burn. Nutrition is nutrition regardless of the time of day

Alexdur85

I didn't read through all the posts so sorry if I'm a repeat

It doesn't matter the time of day.. cals in vs cals out. You might weight a bit more in the morning if you have a huge meal at bed because your stomach is still be disgesting the food or it has a higher stodium content so you retain water. I think the don't eat late myth is in place beause people tend to snack alot at night while they are at home and bored and don't aleways make the right choices.

babyjett1

Most of what you eat goes to just running your body and your body is running 24/7. I always leave a couple of hundred calories for a late late snack so I won't wake up hungry in the middle of the night. A yogurt or a cup of cocoa will knock me right out until morning. It's hard to study if your stomach is rumbling.

brittanyjeanxo

Is this making anyone else hungry? No? Just me then?


I'mma go have a snack. >:]

teagin2002

The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

If your idea of being 'healthy' is to just maintain calorie counts then yes.

My idea of healthy is hitting macronutrients and micronutrients. And not spreading false information. You can encourage people to eat healthy which is obviously a good idea, but saying that your weight would change a with healthy vs not food choice is spreading/creating more myths. Yay for knowledge!

I agree to a point, when we are eating at a deficit it is more difficult to get all those vitamin minerals amino acids etc.... so if we choose to eat processed foods, most are nutrient depleted, then we wont have enough calories to eat the nutrition we actually need for the day. It is ok to do it every once in a while or in moderation, but all the time with a calori deficit and the body will start to suffer. :flowerforyou:

mamitosami

If you want to eat your entire days calories right before bed, it makes no difference.

Meal timing is irrelevant. The reason late night eating gets a bad rep is because people tend to eat their daily allotment of cals in the daytime, AND THEN eat more late at night. They blame the late night eating for the weight gain, when they have simply just created a calorie excess.

This.

Theses!!

I eat a lot of my calories sometimes before bed (well, later in the evening, not right before bed!), it's never made me gain weight. If I eat the majority of my calories throughout the day, and don't eat much at night, of course I'm lighter the next day. But in the grand scheme of it all, my weight loss was steady when I was losing no matter when I ate in the day as long as I kept to my calorie allotment.

rawrxamberx

Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

^ This is entirely false, no offense.

Exactly.

So with this BS, if I go to Washington from Iowa, then I should stop eating at 5pm over there since my body knows what time it is and time zone?

Took the words right out of my mouth lol
I personally think as long as you are within your calorie limit, then your finee!

n003k

Your body cant tell time but it has its own pace and usually if you eat during the day regularly then by 7 you should stop. Its logic. By 7pm you should be done your 3 to 5 portions anyway so eating healthy but in the wrong proportions affects you negatively.

I can see reason in both.

Logically...

We know: The body burns calories 24/7

We know: Weight is gained when Energy Used < Energy Consumed

We know: Time is a human construct to allow a semblance of control.

A rock doesn't know how old it is, nor does it care. A year varies by what distance you are from your respective sun. A day varies also. A body has no use for time.

Given the above, logically speaking if Energy Consumed < Energy Used, with time being an artificial construct based around only our own planets rotations and revolutions, then weight will be lost, whether the energy is consumed equally over the artificially determined 24hour period, or in one lump amount regardless of where in that artificial period said intake occurs.


Think of the body as a capacitor. It stores electricity for when it's needed. We'll give that capacitor a charge of 100%. Every day it gets charged at 10pm. The building it provides energy to gets less use from 10pm-6am. So it only drains at 2%/hr. By 6am, it's down to 84%. Now the building has more people in it, using electronics, more lights on, more activity. It gets a 4%/hr drain. By noon it's down to 60%. By 10pm it's down to 20%. Does it matter when the energy is put in? Does it matter when the energy is used? No. All that is important is that it contains enough charge to continue to power the building.

Difference is, our 'capacitor' can store more and more energy, and our goal is to get it back down to the point where our usage is equal to our charge.

SergeantSunshine_reused

I agree to a point, when we are eating at a deficit it is more difficult to get all those vitamin minerals amino acids etc.... so if we choose to eat processed foods, most are nutrient depleted, then we wont have enough calories to eat the nutrition we actually need for the day. It is ok to do it every once in a while or in moderation, but all the time with a calori deficit and the body will start to suffer. :flowerforyou:

Which is exactly why I encourage healthy choices ^^ I couldn't agree with you more! With the deficit we certainly need to hit our micronutrients, which can be hard to do so. But more of the point I am making is that it will not make or break your weight loss if you choose a "bad" food. Like If I eat a day full of veggies, fruits, lean meats, nuts, and all other sorts of great nutritious foods it is not bad to treat yourself to a dessert a few nights a week, or every night depending on your diet :flowerforyou:

Cr357

Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

Yeah..because our bodies inherently know how to tell time! As soon as 7pm rolls around, it goes, "Metabolism, STOP!" Day lights saving really throws it all off! </sarcasm>

It makes no difference when you eat - you can eat your entire daily calories at 11PM and go to bed as soon as you are done, and the only thing it hinders is a good night's sleep because you would be overly stuffed. Most of my calories are after 6PM because during the day I'm almost too busy to eat a lot. The only reason they don't recommend eating at night is because most people will grab a bag of chips, or cookies, or *insert other binge food here* and go way over their daily calories. If it fits into your calorie budget, have at it!

The bold is where the 7pm myth started OP.

brittanyjeanxo

Your body cant tell time but it has its own pace and usually if you eat during the day regularly then by 7 you should stop. Its logic. By 7pm you should be done your 3 to 5 portions anyway so eating healthy but in the wrong proportions affects you negatively.

I can see reason in both.

Logically...

We know: The body burns calories 24/7

We know: Weight is gained when Energy Used < Energy Consumed

We know: Time is a human construct to allow a semblance of control.

A rock doesn't know how old it is, nor does it care. A year varies by what distance you are from your respective sun. A day varies also. A body has no use for time.

Given the above, logically speaking if Energy Consumed < Energy Used, with time being an artificial construct based around only our own planets rotations and revolutions, then weight will be lost, whether the energy is consumed equally over the artificially determined 24hour period, or in one lump amount regardless of where in that artificial period said intake occurs.


Think of the body as a capacitor. It stores electricity for when it's needed. We'll give that capacitor a charge of 100%. Every day it gets charged at 10pm. The building it provides energy to gets less use from 10pm-6am. So it only drains at 2%/hr. By 6am, it's down to 84%. Now the building has more people in it, using electronics, more lights on, more activity. It gets a 4%/hr drain. By noon it's down to 60%. By 10pm it's down to 20%. Does it matter when the energy is put in? Does it matter when the energy is used? No. All that is important is that it contains enough charge to continue to power the building.

Difference is, our 'capacitor' can store more and more energy, and our goal is to get it back down to the point where our usage is equal to our charge.

This, but less nerdy.

Heidi64

If you want to eat your entire days calories right before bed, it makes no difference.

Meal timing is irrelevant. The reason late night eating gets a bad rep is because people tend to eat their daily allotment of cals in the daytime, AND THEN eat more late at night. They blame the late night eating for the weight gain, when they have simply just created a calorie excess.

I eat 80% of my cals after 10pm, and 4-500 minutes before bed. Never done me any harm!

While that may be working for you it does not mean that it will work for everyone. Eating 80% of my calories just before I go to bed is a guarantee way for me to gain weight. Those of us that are not so young and post menopause have different needs. For me if I eat before bed my body will not have a chance to burn off those calories and it will store it as fat.

True, but I'm older and post menopausal, but I've been having a 1 am snack and sometimes whole meal when I get home from work and just before I go to bed. The amount of calories you eat per day, is the amount of calories you eat, no matter when you eat them.

tsh0ck

a calorie in at 10 p.m. is the same as a calorie in at 10 a.m. doesn't matter one bit.

sweetheart312

well for me i sometimes dont eat pass 6 pm or 8 pm cause i heard that you can gain that way so i dont and believe me it has helped i lost 3 lbs this week and that is awesome so if you believe you should not eat sfter 6 or 8 dont eat go with your gut feeling and i went from 241 lbs now only 189 so if it can help me it can help anyone:flowerforyou:

KristinC4

The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

This is true. It all comes down to calories in and calories out so if you want to eat ice cream every night, and you stay within your calorie goal, you shouldn't gain weight. However, if you are hungry at night, ice cream is not what you choose because you will not stay full very long. I suggest eating something that is filling so you won't have those late night cravings for ice cream that could end up putting you over. Eat something that is filling and good for you if you can.

themedalist

I eat right until bed time most days. Not much but I snack into the evening. NO PROBEM!! AND....I am 55 so I say 'baloney' to the no eating after dinner. I am down 25 pounds. Good luck!

This. I'm down 32 pounds and have a snack every night. And I'm also middle aged.

It's amazing how much traction this myth has.

rutkowsm

All the facts have already been stated. I just wanted to add this: You shouldn't ignore the physical sensation of hunger just because it's 9:30 and you'll be going to bed in 30 minutes. There is a group of people who, like me, are grumpy when they're hungry. And if any diet/lifestyle/way of eating (or whatever!) requires that I be hungry for hours, I'm not going to stick with it very long. I'm also not going to stick with something that's going to encourage me to NEVER eat while my friends are feasting. Eat when you're hungry.

NeonNikki

Eating late is not a problem. As mentioned above, your body cannot tell time. So long as you stay within your caloric goals, then you should be fine. Your body DOES burn calories as you sleep (Otherwise you'd be dead, haha. The body needs calories to operate, even at rest).

Your body can tell time. It releases diff. hormones at diff. times of the day. Melatonin is produced at night.

But no. It does not matter when you eat your meals...However, my doctor said that part of my insomnia may be due to my late night eating habits because it may be messing around with my internal clock? idk. I am not a scientist. I just play one on tv. !