Eating after 7pm?!

Landizzity

Yes yes yes, so I heard that you shouldn't even "...eat one grape..." past 7pm from Oprah.

I tried looking this up on ye ol' internets and I got a bunch of grey saying "...if you eat like crap all day it doesn't matter what time you stop...blah blah". I am wondering if you do the eating right thing all day and stop eating 3-4-5 hours before you go to bed if that gives your body more time to spend that energy rather than store it? Hmmm? HMMMMMM?

My opinion, and I know you are just dying to know, is that the less you eat before you go to bed the better.

I'd seriously love some input though. Thanks!

metalpalace

Eating three hours before sleep your blood sugars will be at a level that signals the body to burn fat for fuel as you sleep. That's the idea anyway. I believe it personally

barbiecat

:flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: I have been eating oatmeal with applesauce or Kashi cereal with almond milk between 8:30 and 9PM every night since January and it doesn't seem to have interfered with my losing weight. I eat very healthy stuff all day, as well.:bigsmile:

iplayoutside19

This is one of those things that kind of irritates me. Are we going to turn into gremlins if we eat after 7pm? Sometimes I don't even begin my work out until 930 pm. What about 2nd shifters?

If I'm planning on running first thing in the morning I eat a banana RIGHT before I go to bed. If it's slowed my weight loss, so be it.

What I'm trying to say, out of all the things that we need to focus on..this is probably one of the least of them. I'd be more worried about making I was near my calorie goal for the day, and that I have received the proper percentages of nutirents before I worried about this. It might make a difference, but I think it's negligable.

If it's that big a deal I'll have Stripe and his freinds hang out in your kitchen after 7pm so you won't eat.:bigsmile:

PJilly

I always have one last snack within an hour or two of going to bed. I believe it's good to eat every few hours, and if i don't get that last snack in, I am too hungry to relax and sleep. It hasn't hampered my weight loss at all, I don't think. I'm shooting for a pound a week, and I've been right there or maybe even a little better than that. (I'm too lazy to do the math to see how close to 17 weeks ago August 17 was, but that's when I joined.)

BamaRose0107

I have heard this many times but I feel everyone is different. I don't exercise somedays till 9 or ten at night and sometimes because of mine and my husbands work schedules we don't eat dinner till 8:30. If I were not to eat after 7 I would be starving when I went to bed. I think it has alot to do with what your body is used to as to whether or not that would even be possible.

ambercole

Ok, ok, your body does not run on a 24hr clock like your brain does. It doesn't care if you eat at 2 am or 2 pm. The only thing that matters is the type of food and the amount of food that you eat. Yes if you eat ice cream and bon bons every night before you go to bed, then yes, you will gain weight, but it isnt because you ate it after a certain time. As long as you stay within your calorie range for the day it's ok. Just try to space you meals apart as evenly as possible. Now with saying that, no that does not mean eat only every 4 hours on the dot. It just means dont eat all of your calories at once and not eat for the rest of the day.

lulabellewoowoo

I think it's personal. I'm a late night binger for no reason other than it's there. I have to get up at 3 a.m. for work and was ALWAYS dragging. I joined one of the no late night binging groups which means each individual sets their cutoff time personally. I originally set mine at 9 p.m. and found that after a few days, I wasn't even craving food later in the evening. But I was going to bed around that time too, so it was kind of cheating for me.
Then I backed it up to 8 but still was going to bed at 9.
Now, most nights, after dinner at 6, I won't eat anything and just drink herbal tea.
The benefits for me PERSONALLY. I haven't been tired getting up for work. I've been more productive. Granted, by 3 a.m., I'm hungry and eat a snack when I get up and eat breakfast with kids at 8, but I see my own personal benefits. I think everyone has to figure out what works for their time schedule and their bodies. This is just my personal experience.

SHBoss1673

Well, to be sure, the body does actually run on a 24 hour clock, including the metabolism. It's called the circadian rhythm. So yes, there is some validity to not eating right before we go to bed. Why? Because, when you sleep, your metabolism slows for the sole purpose of repair and growth. If you give your body more calories than it needs right before you go to bed, chances are, you're gonna store some. BUT

And I can state this STRONGLY enough.

Take this with a grain of salt.

OK, YES, the metabolism is slightly faster in the morning to early afternoon, yes, your body is more efficient at carbohydrate use earlier in the day, and yes it's probably not helping your cause if you have a number 1 from MacDonalds at 11:00 at night right before you go to be. But seriously, the changes are extremely small, tiny by metabolic standards, the changes in the morning metabolism to evening are somewhere in the range of 1 to 2%, too small to really make a giant difference in your day to day.

Remember, media people are trying to sell books. Big ideas sell books and magazines. So they take hold of any detail that has even a grain of truth and they pound it into your head until you can think of nothing else. Remember that.

It's about working out and eating the correct amount of the correct nutrients and that's that!

lotusfromthemud

it's probably not helping your cause if you have a number 1 from MacDonalds at 11:00 at night right before you go to be.

Were you following me six years ago?:noway:

SHBoss1673

it's probably not helping your cause if you have a number 1 from MacDonalds at 11:00 at night right before you go to be.

Were you following me six years ago?:noway:

Stalking is my trade! :glasses:

LittleSpy

Okay, just to be a total b**** here -- I don't think I'd be comfortable taking weight loss advice from Oprah. She's hasn't exactly been successful long-term.


For me, I eat whenever I'm hungry. I have been successful. I go to bed anywhere from 11pm (rarely) to 4am, and I really don't know when it's going to be until it happens, so setting some ridiculous cut off time would be asinine in my case. As others have said, eaing a large meal right before bed could possibly upset some people's sleep, but in terms of weight loss, there's just really no reason you can't have a healthy snack an hour or two before bed.

melissaag1984

This is one of those things that kind of irritates me. Are we going to turn into gremlins if we eat after 7pm? Sometimes I don't even begin my work out until 930 pm. What about 2nd shifters?

If I'm planning on running first thing in the morning I eat a banana RIGHT before I go to bed. If it's slowed my weight loss, so be it.

What I'm trying to say, out of all the things that we need to focus on..this is probably one of the least of them. I'd be more worried about making I was near my calorie goal for the day, and that I have received the proper percentages of nutirents before I worried about this. It might make a difference, but I think it's negligable.

If it's that big a deal I'll have Stripe and his freinds hang out in your kitchen after 7pm so you won't eat.:bigsmile:

I don' t think it is so much meant to be an exact time of day, but rather an amount of hourse prior to your going to sleep.

CrystalT

IMO, if you are someone who has trouble with late-night binging, it might be a good idea to shoot for a cut off time. As long as you aren't pigging out of 800 calories of potato chips and ice cream, I wouldn't worry about it. I have a small snack within an hour of going to bed almost every night.

Okay, just to be a total b**** here -- I don't think I'd be comfortable taking weight loss advice from Oprah. She's hasn't exactly been successful long-term.

I agree!!! I think she is one of the best examples of a yo-yo dieter that there is out there. I also see Kirstie Alley as a walking ad for reasons not to try Jenny Craig!!