Does it matter what time you eat?

babydiego87

Hey,

I do shift work and often don't get to eat until 8pm at times. I'm just wondering how much this affects weight loss and if I should make a conservative effort to eat my last meal earlier?

Ta

KANGOOJUMPS

yep, thats not good to eat late at night.

badmojo108

Unless eating late gives you heartburn, or makes sleep difficult it doesn't matter at all when you eat.

bcattoes

No, eat when it fits your schedule.

PBsMommy

I don't eat "dinner" until about 10 P.M.... This has never affected my weight-loss

SideSteel

Hey,

I do shift work and often don't get to eat until 8pm at times. I'm just wondering how much this affects weight loss and if I should make a conservative effort to eat my last meal earlier?

Ta

Eating late will not contribute to weight gain or impair fat loss any more than eating early will, assuming the same total intake in both cases.

skylark94

yep, thats not good to eat late at night.

Very common MYTH. As stated above, unless it interferes with sleep, eat whenever you want.

GiddyupTim

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

raeleek

It' doesn't matter when you eat as far as weight loss.

The only thing about eating late is possible gi upset. I was advised by my gi doctor to avoid eating a few hours before bed only because I do have some gi issues.

Your metabolism is on all the time and it will burn off calories all the time.

Calories in calories out, that simple.

mandipandi75

Hey,

I do shift work and often don't get to eat until 8pm at times. I'm just wondering how much this affects weight loss and if I should make a conservative effort to eat my last meal earlier?

Ta

Eating late will not contribute to weight gain or impair fat loss any more than eating early will, assuming the same total intake in both cases.

^ Can't explain it better than that

TheDarlingOne

I work 14 hour shifts - 8a-10p....so often i'm not able to eat the last bit of my pre-planned meal line ups til 10p on ride home. then i'm asleep by 12midnight (if not earlier sometimes). i have lost 10lbs this past month so it hasn't effected me. Biggest thing I can contribute that to though is PRE-PLANNED part....not just all willy nilly when i clock out lol

MissMaryMac33

Ignore the first reply you got (they are wrong) and read the rest... then you have your answer.

missability

I am no expert, so I'm not gonna say...yep it's bad, or nope it don't matter.....BUT, I have been doing my little experiment since January 1, 2013, (5 weeks ago) when I joined. I log log log, stay away from sugar and all so called 0 calories sugar subs. I get plenty of sugar from grains and fruit. I weigh myself every morning and the reason is because I like to print out my progress report every couple weeks and compare to the day to day weight loss....what I have discovered. is that when I eat a big lunch, and keep supper light in calories and stick with mostly proteins and fats, the next day I always either have a loss or stay the same. But when I eat a big supper full of carbs I start bouncing up and down by a pound on the scale.....so....for me it's more about what you eat at night more than the time.....but that's just me and my 2 cents...:) Beth Ann

babydiego87

Thank you very much guys

Guess I will have that fruit after all

now_or_never13

yep, thats not good to eat late at night.

Do you have anything to back this up????

Eat whenever is best for you OP... meal timing has NO effect on weight loss as long as you are within calories.

mjterp

There is a whole biochemical response to this... VERY basically, calories in/calories out
HOWEVER, in laymans terms, what you eat turns to blood sugar and your body decides what to do with it. IF you are exercising and USING that blood sugar, it will be burned off and any extra needed should be taken from fat stores (assuming the body has enough time to make that change...if it has to wait too long for the fat conversion, it will go for a quick source, which is muscle, unfortunately) IF, however, you eat and then go to sleep and your metabolism is slowed related to the sleep cycle...and all of those delicious calories aren't needed at the moment, they will be stored...AS FAT.
Think Sumo wreslter. Those guys work out like 8 hours a day and eat ALL of their calories (albeit HEALTHY calories, believe it or not) before they head to bed...

SO...does it matter what time? it depends...
Oh...and by time in this situation I don't mean CLOCK time. obviously working odd shifts just changes when your body burns what. metabolism slows whether you sleep at night or during the day...not during a prescribed "clock time."

babydiego87

yep, thats not good to eat late at night.

Do you have anything to back this up????

Eat whenever is best for you OP... meal timing has NO effect on weight loss as long as you are within calories.

Partly why I asked also, since I have quite a few extra calories hanging around, even though it's nearly 930 now I still wanna get as close to eating them all as I can.

bennscrappy

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

I am anxiously awaiting a response from the Intermittent fasting experts on this study. Usually they can find flaws with studies like this.

For me, even if it does turn out eating late isn’t optimum, I don’t care. It works best for me. I have been doing intermittent fasting for over a year now, typically eating all my calories from 4:30pm-8:30pm every day. The most important thing is to not let dogma scare you out of doing what works for you. Having my nightly feast is fantastic.

SideSteel

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

Study used self reported intake and rather heavily flawed expenditure estimates to arrive at 2.2kg difference in weight over 5 months. Find me an example using tighter controls on energy balance and I'd happily consider it as strong evidence against my claim.

.

GiddyupTim

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

I am anxiously awaiting a response from the Intermittent fasting experts on this study. Usually they can find flaws with studies like this.

For me, even if it does turn out eating late isn’t optimum, I don’t care. It works best for me. I have been doing intermittent fasting for over a year now, typically eating all my calories from 4:30pm-8:30pm every day. The most important thing is to not let dogma scare you out of doing what works for you. Having my nightly feast is fantastic.

I don't know, obviously. This is one study. But, it seems it might perhaps be quite consistent with the idea behind intermittent fasting.

GiddyupTim

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

Study used self reported intake and rather heavily flawed expenditure estimates to arrive at 2.2kg difference in weight over 5 months. Find me an example using tighter controls on energy balance and I'd happily consider it as strong evidence against my claim.

.

You may be right. But, one can always quibble about some minor aspect of methodology. It needs to be replicated. In the meantime, I am not so sure we can make unqualified, categorical claims.

SideSteel

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

Study used self reported intake and rather heavily flawed expenditure estimates to arrive at 2.2kg difference in weight over 5 months. Find me an example using tighter controls on energy balance and I'd happily consider it as strong evidence against my claim.



.

You may be right. But, one can always quibble about some minor aspect of methodology. It needs to be replicated. In the meantime, I am not so sure we can make unqualified, categorical claims.

Alternatively one can look at more than one study and note that there's not a whole lot of compelling research to indicate that it matters to any significant degree.

Until you can show that it matters to one degree or another through replicated research then I don't take issue with a "it's not going to really matter" in a population that is keeping energy intake monitored and preferential aspects of dieting in mind.

GiddyupTim

Fair enough. But, if there is so much compelling evidence that timing of meals makes no difference, then why did the researchers decide to waste time and money looking at it?

SideSteel

Fair enough. But, if there is so much compelling evidence that timing of meals makes no difference, then why did the researchers decide to waste time and money looking at it?

I wouldn't say there's "so much compelling evidence that its irrelevant" -- I would say that there's not a whole lot of compelling evidence that it IS relevant to any significant degree, and certainly not to any degree that is strong enough to recommend a nutrient timing protocol that violates the dieters personal preferences.

To my knowledge, and I don't claim to have seen every study, when energy balance is under tight control the differences are insignificant and thermodynamics would agree with this.

As far as why the studies are done, I haven't the first clue about that honestly.

bcattoes

Side Steel might be wrong.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/behindtheheadlines/news/2013-01-30-its-not-what-you-eat-its-when-you-eat-part-2/
excerpt

It is worth noting that only early and late lunchtime habits were associated with differences in weight loss, not breakfast or dinner.

The authors’ noted that around 40% of the total daily calories of the Mediterranean diet the participants consumed were at lunch, so this was the main meal of the day. This may be different from other countries, where dinner may be the main meal of the day. As such, the results may not be directly applicable to people in other countries, including the UK.

As this was an observational study, we cannot say that eating an early lunch caused those people to lose weight, only that the two appear linked in some way. As other behavioural or biological factors may influence when a person chooses to eat their lunch, there may be other factors involved in the link between mealtime and weight loss.

This well designed study raises some intriguing questions about how the timing of a meal relates to weight loss success.

badmojo108

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/really-timing-of-meals-affects-weight-loss/?src=recg

I remember reading a summary of that study, if I remember correctly:

1. Similar calories isn't identical calories. I think the difference in groups was about 5 lbs over 5 months. That's about a 116 calories a day, and it was "self-reporting". +/- 116 calories could easily be considered "similar" and still account for a 5 lbs differance over 5 months.
2. 116 calories could also easily be people mis-recording. If the early group underestimated calories by 63 calories a day and the late group overestimates by 63 calories that would be all that was needed.
3. When did they weight themselves? Did eating late lunch mean a later dinner? If eating a late dinner then weighing right after obviously they would weigh more. Even if weighing in the morning, a later dinner can effect a morning weight in. For example, I eat a very large late dinner, and weigh myself first thing in the morning. However I know I weight my least around 11 o'clock.
4. Finally, the study focuses on lunch not dinner as the main meal, we are talking about eating LUNCH before or after 3. We on the other hand are talking about eating dinner before bed, and the study makes no reference to what the subjects ate for dinner or when.

Even is the study is perfectly accurate and eating earlier really will result in 5 lbs over 5 months, if it's easier to stick with your diet and eat later so you don't have to go to bed hungry, wouldn't ease of adherence be more important than less than potentially losing an extra 1/4 lbs or 4 oz of weight a week?

gabriela182

Your body can't tell what time it is, but what your body does know is the calorie intake, what you're actually eating and your activity level for that day. Thats what matters more than anything... this is what determines if you lose, gain or maintain
and if you're looking for a late night snack try to remember the calories you've consumed throughout the day and if its worth it


hope this helped!

Barbellerella

no.






disclaimer: *sorry crankstr*

wow29

bump

kepete

I lost 100 pounds eating at different times - most very late. Not an issue!

meshashesha2012

not an issue. the only time i'm careful about meal timing is when it might run into a workout. i simply cant workout well when i'm in full on digestive mode