Is it okay if I "binge" my calories at night before bed?

Girl_Bomb

Think of it like fueling your car while on a road trip. As long as you get to your destination, does it matter when you gas up?

yes but wouldnt you put gas into your car at the beggining of your trip rather then at the end

ldrosophila

It depends on what you use the binge for. If it's just because you like to eat a few snacky foods at night that is fine, but if you have an actual binge eating disoreder with food and it's a destructive habit meaning you binge to harm yourself it is done in a shameful manner, you hide or lie about the food, and you use it to give you that rush of endorphins I would say DO NOT binge. If by binge you mean you eat a little extra snack foods that are high in calorie then just continue to fit it in you calories.

I personally cannot binge. It feeds into my addictive behavior and takes me days to break the binge cycle. It's about self harm and negative cyclical vs. I want some junk food.

3dogsrunning

Think of it like fueling your car while on a road trip. As long as you get to your destination, does it matter when you gas up?

I don't necessarily agree with this. If your daily limit is around -1400 then no its not really going to matter when you eat.. but if youre on a 2500+ plan and you're eating back your cals too.... you can flood your car by putting too much in at once I believe...

Although I dont believe in the dont eat after "this time rule" I do believe if i didnt eat anything all day or very little and i eat a box of ding dongs and a double whooper or my 2000+ daily cals before bed, it wont be beneficial.

Assuming that you are under your TDEE by the same amount under the 2 examples - there is no difference. Using the same analogy, the 1,400 person will have a smaller tank than the 2,500 + exercise calories person - so assuming both are at the same deficit, there will be no flooding of engines.

In other words, the 1,400 calorie person at a 500 calorie deficit will be a compact, the 2,500 + exercise calorie person at a 500 calorie deficit will be a silverado.

I dont quite believe that. I dont think our bodies run on a linear 24 hour clock but a circular. Meaning with your example if my day starts at 7am and I go to bed at 9pm anything I eat rather it be 500 cals at 7am or 3000 cals at 9pm, or even 2000 cals if i wake up for a midnight snack.. just as long as all your cals for that day are eaten before that 7am you should be fine if it falls in your tdee or whatever... i dont necessarily agree with that..

I dont think simplistic analogies about cars and other things are suitable for a situation like this.. it isnt so cut and dry.. I think our bodies run on a 24 hour clock but circular meaning if my day starts at 7am and bed time is 9pm basically that's where my day should end in order for the calorie deficit to work... because lets say i was an insomniac with a calorie goal of 3500 from a linear 7am to 7am someone could consume 3500 but if at 5am they have a 2300 breakfast and then 2 hrs later at 7am the "next" day someone consumes 2500 and then waits till the end of the day and repeats.. i dont think anything will be lose or gained...

Basically i believe someone cant wake up 2hours before the next day and say i didnt meet my calorie goal i can still eat 2000 cals and then start their day, that 2000 cals will be tacted on to the new day and the only way it wouldnt be is if you gave your body enough time to process the cals before the next day begun.. which is the only reason why a person saving their cals before bed would see any results 500 or even 1000 processing overnight is fine... but 2500 2 hours before the next day begins heck no I dont believe our bodies work like that... I believe its a circular revolving 24 hours so when you put that 2500 in at 5am anything between 5am and 5am the next day counts as 24 hour period so technically you had 5500 cals that day instead of 3500... there is a process i dont believe just as long as its in a 24 hour period eat when and whatever you want your body needs to process everything....

You may not believe it but that doesn't mean it isn't true.
Many people look at the total calories over the week as opposed to one day. If you at 2000 calories at the end of one day, you were still -2000 for the other 23 hours of the day while your body was burning calories. So one day you were at a deficit, the next you were over.
I work shift work. On one day, I wake up at a normal time, eat some, nap, then go to backshift where I eat for the whole backshift. On that day I take in more calories over a 24 hour period. I go to sleep, wake up, then go to backshift again, again eating from the time I was up until just before bed, that is usually an average amount of calories. The first day off, I sleep for a couple of hours, get up, have a normal day and go to bed at a normal time. I usually do not get to eat enough to reach my calorie goal because my day is shortened. I have had no issues losing weight.

As for the OP, I also often end up eating right before bed because I work 12 hours shifts, then go to the gym, eat and go to sleep. It has not affected me weight loss either.

LorinaLynn

Meal timing is irrelevant.

But if you're going to eat late, why not save up those calories for a big delicious healthy meal instead of "junk?"

KANGOOJUMPS

night time eating is BAD!

LorinaLynn

Think of it like fueling your car while on a road trip. As long as you get to your destination, does it matter when you gas up?

yes but wouldnt you put gas into your car at the beggining of your trip rather then at the end

Doesn't matter, as long as you don't run out of fuel.

If I was going on a trip, I wouldn't fuel up before I left, because gas is about 20 cents above the national average where I live. I'd just get enough fuel to get to a place where it's more cost effective and convenient to refuel.

If eating the bulk of the calories goes best with an individual's schedule and preferences, that's the same as waiting until I cross the border into Maryland to tank up.

I eat about half my daily calories for dinner and an evening snack, with the other half being split between breakfast, lunch and morning & afternoon snacks.

SPNLuver83

Eating before bed is fine, but you don't want to "binge" on junk and crap food every night just because you have the calories left over to do so. The type of calories you put in your bodies matter, as far as your overall health goes. Now I'm not saying you can never eat junk- I believe everything in moderation is just fine- but you don't want to eat doritos and pepsi every night just because you have the calories to do so, ya know?

There's plenty of snacks you can eat at night that taste great and are good for you! One of my favorites is greek yogurt mixed with some PB2 or regular peanut butter, some dark chocolate chips, a banana and some reddi-whip. Tastes great and the reddi-whip makes it taste decadent but you get some good ol' protein and calcium from the yogurt, and the good fats from the pb and chocolate, the banana has all them good vitamins and is a natural sweetener. And it's gonna be much more filling for the same amount of calories you would get with the example of a serving of doritos and a can of pepsi.

lacurandera1

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Eats 50% of her 2000- 3000 daily calories after 8 pm. Every. Day. Didn't affect my weight loss, hasn't affected my fat loss. Your body doesn't know what time it is.

Trechechus

Think of it like fueling your car while on a road trip. As long as you get to your destination, does it matter when you gas up.

This.

Trechechus

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eatcleanNtraindirty

Binging is not good... mmmmkayy? (Said in a Mr. Mackey voice)

LauraAshley95

I think the thing about this is, it's bad to eat before you sleep because then you aren't active for 8 hours or so and that food doesn't go anywhere but to your fatty places. But as long as you're keeping within your limits, I guess it should be fine. Still not the best, but it shouldn't hurt you much.

Cheri_Moves

The only negative to doing that is that carbs give you energy during the day but since you're eating at night it's just getting stored as fat..

Myth. This is broscience at it's best.

Funny this should come up, because I just ran across this article.
http://www.biolayne.com/nutrition/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman/

IWantToo

I work shift work. On one day, I wake up at a normal time, eat some, nap, then go to backshift where I eat for the whole backshift. On that day I take in more calories over a 24 hour period. I go to sleep, wake up, then go to backshift again, again eating from the time I was up until just before bed, that is usually an average amount of calories. The first day off, I sleep for a couple of hours, get up, have a normal day and go to bed at a normal time. I usually do not get to eat enough to reach my calorie goal because my day is shortened. I have had no issues losing weight.

As for the OP, I also often end up eating right before bed because I work 12 hours shifts, then go to the gym, eat and go to sleep. It has not affected me weight loss either.

At the bolded like wise.. i use to work night shift and eat 24 hours it seems thats because my body was on a circular time.. now its on linear I have gained 20 pounds eating less cals... because my schedule was/is pretty much 8am - 5pm work shift bed by 11 everyday.. cant consume the same amount of cals or even close my body just compounds the calories into fat if i dont eat a "minuscule" aka "under 2000" amount in the time frame allotted..super sucks...

"You may not believe it but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Many people look at the total calories over the week as opposed to one day. If you at 2000 calories at the end of one day, you were still -2000 for the other 23 hours of the day while your body was burning calories. So one day you were at a deficit, the next you were over. "

I dont believe it, because its not true for me and many others. I wish I could look at my cals for the entire week and lose unfortunately my body would go into a fattening stage and it would be hard to get that fat off... say for instance if my weekly goal was 21,000 there is NO WAY I OR ANYONE COULD EAT 10,000 OVER THE LAST 2 DAYS OF THE WEEK AND EXPECT NOT TO SEE A GAIN ON THE SCALE.. it just doesnt work like that maybe if we ate the 10,000 in the beginning of the week and had time to process it and lose what we gained from those days.. but im just not going to tell anyone its okay to binge as long as youre in calorie goal for the day or week.. its okay in some instances if its a smaller amount and your body has time to process it but massive amounts nope.. and -2000 for 23 hours just means i was -2000 for 23 hours, i gain nothing from not eating for 23 hours and then eating 2000 in one hour.. what's the purpose? starving for 23 hours and then eating, doesn't mean i was in a deficit.. just means i didnt eat, my body isnt in some kind of fat super burning deficit creating stage for not eating for 23 hours..

Makoce

Oh wow! Thanks guys.
And yes, my binging use to be a eating disorder.
Id go from a sandwhich, to soup, to chips, to popcorn, to cake, to tunafish, to candy, and the whole like all night long until bed.
But with my 10z of chips, some apples with peanutbutter, and crackers and cheese, I can say I did feel guilty, but I dont no longer.
I am actually saving the calories not just so I can eat more at night, but to actually prevent my previous habits.
I admit I eat junk food every day, but usually its only the serving size. Ive been teaching myself what 17 Doritos tastes like, haha!

kdeaux1959

You may see a little rise in the scale on the morning weigh in by eating later since the food has been more recently eaten. This is more a numbers game though and should have little to no long term effect.

tryclyn

I work shift work. On one day, I wake up at a normal time, eat some, nap, then go to backshift where I eat for the whole backshift. On that day I take in more calories over a 24 hour period. I go to sleep, wake up, then go to backshift again, again eating from the time I was up until just before bed, that is usually an average amount of calories. The first day off, I sleep for a couple of hours, get up, have a normal day and go to bed at a normal time. I usually do not get to eat enough to reach my calorie goal because my day is shortened. I have had no issues losing weight.

As for the OP, I also often end up eating right before bed because I work 12 hours shifts, then go to the gym, eat and go to sleep. It has not affected me weight loss either.

At the bolded like wise.. i use to work night shift and eat 24 hours it seems thats because my body was on a circular time.. now its on linear I have gained 20 pounds eating less cals... because my schedule was/is pretty much 8am - 5pm work shift bed by 11 everyday.. cant consume the same amount of cals or even close my body just compounds the calories into fat if i dont eat a "minuscule" aka "under 2000" amount in the time frame allotted..super sucks...

"You may not believe it but that doesn't mean it isn't true. Many people look at the total calories over the week as opposed to one day. If you at 2000 calories at the end of one day, you were still -2000 for the other 23 hours of the day while your body was burning calories. So one day you were at a deficit, the next you were over. "

I dont believe it, because its not true for me and many others. I wish I could look at my cals for the entire week and lose unfortunately my body would go into a fattening stage and it would be hard to get that fat off... say for instance if my weekly goal was 21,000 there is NO WAY I OR ANYONE COULD EAT 10,000 OVER THE LAST 2 DAYS OF THE WEEK AND EXPECT NOT TO SEE A GAIN ON THE SCALE.. it just doesnt work like that maybe if we ate the 10,000 in the beginning of the week and had time to process it and lose what we gained from those days.. but im just not going to tell anyone its okay to binge as long as your in calorie goal for the day or week.. its okay in some instances if its a smaller amount and your body has time to process it but massive amounts nope.. and -2000 for 23 hours just means i was -2000 for 23 hours who fast for a day and thinks they magically lost weight..same applies...i gain nothing from not eating for 23 hours and then eating 2000 in one hour.. what's the purpose? starving for 23 hours and then eating, cause no weight loss or gain. pointless.

I think that you are over thinking it.

Makoce

You may see a little rise in the scale on the morning weigh in by eating later since the food has been more recently eaten. This is more a numbers game though and should have little to no long term effect.

Actually, I saw a loss on the scale today!

Poetic_Photography

I often eat my calories at night (after I work out)

Reza151

I wouldn't do it, because your body doesn't need all of that energy before winding down for bed. You burn less calories at rest so they calories are more likely to be converted into fat.