Tell me again why eating before bed won't make me fat?

DavPul

So let's say in a 24 hour period you burn 2200 calories.
And let's say within that 24 hour period you eat 1700 calories (suppose you at 700 of them in bed).

What is 2200 - 1700?

I think you're missing the point. The body doesn't burn kcal at a steady rate. Even if Bob burns 2200 kcal in a 24hr period and only consumes 1000 during his day, giving the body more kcal than it NEEDS at any one time will result in storage. Even if Bob eats his ice cream in the middle of the day, any excess kcal will be stored for later use. And once the immediate energy needs are met and glycogen has been replenished, how are the extra kcal not stored as fat?

meredith1123

dinner...bad bad....
a snack or small meal under 300 cal.. OK...

but i never eat a meal of any size after 6pm (except on rare event occasions of course) and i usually just do a snack size meal for dinner, if that.

dinner KILLS my weight loss... just kills it.

cschiff

I often have a snack late at night (because I am often up late and get hungry), so I try to keep it small. If I really want something sweet, I'll have a small handful of chocolate chips to satisfy the sweet tooth. Even if it is not the absolute healthiest, I do the best I can and am doing well on my journey so far. That said, I think it's okay to have a small snack before bed but ya can't get upset if the weight fluctuates in the morning (especially because weight fluctuation is totally normal and probably would have happened even without the small snack).

Enjoy

Brad805

Here is a summary about the reality of night time eating from a bodybuilder with a PHd in Nutritional sciences.

http://www.biolayne.com/nutrition/carbs-at-night-fat-loss-killer-or-imaginary-boogeyman/

EricCowperthwaite

But, you know what would make it even worse? If Bob doesn't eat breakfast. Then his metabolism wouldn't restart after sleeping. So now he stored all those calories that he ate right before bed AND he left his metabolism stopped, too!

I just figured that would add in another myth and make Bob's situation even more disastrous. :bigsmile:

charmander89

Hmm well I always eat right up until I go to sleep! As you can see from my ticker, it hasn't stopped me :P

ryry_

Scenario 1:

I'm awake for 16 hours and burn 2000 calories. I sleep 8 hours and burn 300 calories. Total calories burned for the day 2300. I eat 1 1800 calorie meal for the day right before I go to sleep. How many calories did I burn in that day?

Scenario 2:
I'm awake for 16 hours and burn 2000 calories. I sleep 8 hours and burn 300 calories. Total calories burned for the day 2300. I eat 6 300 calorie meals spaced evenly apart throughout the day. Total calories eaten for the day is 1800 calories. How many calories did I burn in that day?

Cadori

Fun shenanigans between bed and sleep.

crystalflame

So let's say in a 24 hour period you burn 2200 calories.
And let's say within that 24 hour period you eat 1700 calories (suppose you at 700 of them in bed).

What is 2200 - 1700?

I think you're missing the point. The body doesn't burn kcal at a steady rate. Even if Bob burns 2200 kcal in a 24hr period and only consumes 1000 during his day, giving the body more kcal than it NEEDS at any one time will result in storage. Even if Bob eats his ice cream in the middle of the day, any excess kcal will be stored for later use. And once the immediate energy needs are met and glycogen has been replenished, how are the extra kcal not stored as fat?

They will be. And then the next day, when he is not eating as is moving, the fat will be oxidized. Net cals.

Rockstar_JILL

I have been eating my supper most nights around 8-9pm for the last 2 years and I have lost 80+ pounds....it still works.

karenhray7

You need to extend your timeframe to account for the entire day.

Except I'm not concerned with Bob's daytime intake. I'm not concerned with whether or not he's maintaining a deficit. Because that part is irrelevant to my question. Even if Bob is maintaining a deficit during the day, and by this I mean that his body is using stored energy while he's up and moving, or even sitting and typing. I'm talking about about the period of Bob's 24 hours when his body requires only the minimum to function. How are the extra kcal he's consumed before bed going to be used instead of stored? Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

jesz124

But, you know what would make it even worse? If Bob doesn't eat breakfast. Then his metabolism wouldn't restart after sleeping. So now he stored all those calories that he ate right before bed AND he left his metabolism stopped, too!

I just figured that would add in another myth and make Bob's situation even more disastrous. :bigsmile:

It's ok, Bob will probably be turning all his fat into muscle whilst on a calorie deficit anyway. That's generally how it works isn't it? :laugh:

jesz124

Fun shenanigans between bed and sleep.

Your a baby, you don't know about things like that yet....

JDMPWR

You need to extend your timeframe to account for the entire day.

Except I'm not concerned with Bob's daytime intake. I'm not concerned with whether or not he's maintaining a deficit. Because that part is irrelevant to my question. Even if Bob is maintaining a deficit during the day, and by this I mean that his body is using stored energy while he's up and moving, or even sitting and typing. I'm talking about about the period of Bob's 24 hours when his body requires only the minimum to function. How are the extra kcal he's consumed before bed going to be used instead of stored? Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

You are missing the point. It doesnt matter about a particular section of time. It's about the 24 day. You may burn less when sleeping BUT you will burn a bit more when awake. The point being is your body is CONSTANTLY burning calories. again CONSTANTLY. even when sleeping.

ryry_

You need to extend your timeframe to account for the entire day.

Except I'm not concerned with Bob's daytime intake. I'm not concerned with whether or not he's maintaining a deficit. Because that part is irrelevant to my question. Even if Bob is maintaining a deficit during the day, and by this I mean that his body is using stored energy while he's up and moving, or even sitting and typing. I'm talking about about the period of Bob's 24 hours when his body requires only the minimum to function. How are the extra kcal he's consumed before bed going to be used instead of stored? Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

They will be burned the next day when Bob is awake and active and eating at a calorie deficit.

ETA: And this is a far simplistic view of the picture as your body is in a constant state of breaking down food storing fat, oxidating fat, etc. etc.

EricCowperthwaite

Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

And later on, when he has an energy deficit, his body pulls the fat out of storage and burns it for energy. That's what fat storage is for.

All of this assumes that Bob's body functions normally, he doesn't have a thyroid problem nor is he insulin resistant, nor overloading on carbs and sugar and keeping his insulin levels too high and so on.

servilia

You need to extend your timeframe to account for the entire day.

Except I'm not concerned with Bob's daytime intake. I'm not concerned with whether or not he's maintaining a deficit. Because that part is irrelevant to my question. Even if Bob is maintaining a deficit during the day, and by this I mean that his body is using stored energy while he's up and moving, or even sitting and typing. I'm talking about about the period of Bob's 24 hours when his body requires only the minimum to function. How are the extra kcal he's consumed before bed going to be used instead of stored? Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

Ummm you've been answered but here goes. Yes there might be storage short term but so what? He doesn't have to cry over it. If he's in a deficit he will burn it later and then some.

cmcollins001

So let's say in a 24 hour period you burn 2200 calories.
And let's say within that 24 hour period you eat 1700 calories (suppose you at 700 of them in bed).

What is 2200 - 1700?

I think you're missing the point. The body doesn't burn kcal at a steady rate. Even if Bob burns 2200 kcal in a 24hr period and only consumes 1000 during his day, giving the body more kcal than it NEEDS at any one time will result in storage. Even if Bob eats his ice cream in the middle of the day, any excess kcal will be stored for later use. And once the immediate energy needs are met and glycogen has been replenished, how are the extra kcal not stored as fat?

I believe it's you who are missing the point.

I don't use an entire box of oatmeal at one sitting, so I store the remainder of the box. According to the above theory, I have to buy a new box of oatmeal every time I want a bowl of oatmeal instead of just dipping into my storage, therefore, resulting in an excess amount of oatmeal.

Stored as fat or not stored as fat...doesn't matter...storage is there to be used when needed, and the body needs it to think, breath, move...whatever, so the storage gets used when no other food is supplied during the day, thus burning the excess...i.e. calorie deficit a.k.a weight loss.

Or something like that.

taso42

I can't believe I just did this. But here goes. To spell it out:

Consider this spreadsheet. It represents some fictional person who has a TDEE of 2120

The hour column represents the 24 hours in a day.

Hours 17 thru 24 are sleep, so he's burning only 65 cals per hour that hour. The rest of the hours he burns 100 cals per hour.

He has 3 meals over the course of the day for 500, 300, and 750 calories respectively/

You can see that over the course of the day, he at some points reaches a surplus, and at some points reaches a deficit.



On balance, he achieves a deficit of 570 calories for this day

I invite you to create a spreadsheet of your own and divvy up the meals however you like.

If you still don't get it after this overcomplicated explanation, then I'm sorry.

Edit: er, actually, the way I laid it out, he's in a deficit all day. But you get the point? No? Probably not? I don't care.

sullus

You need to extend your timeframe to account for the entire day.

Except I'm not concerned with Bob's daytime intake. I'm not concerned with whether or not he's maintaining a deficit. Because that part is irrelevant to my question. Even if Bob is maintaining a deficit during the day, and by this I mean that his body is using stored energy while he's up and moving, or even sitting and typing. I'm talking about about the period of Bob's 24 hours when his body requires only the minimum to function. How are the extra kcal he's consumed before bed going to be used instead of stored? Bob may still be losing weight, but giving the body more kcal than it requires at any one time results in kcal storage. This is my argument.

They will be stored. correct. but that's not really relevant to weight loss. that one meal wont put back the rest of the day's deficit.