Timing of your calories

heybales

Yes, but... your body also can only process so many calories an hour. In fact this is a problem for ultramarathoners for instance. You have to train your body to actually be able to take in all those extra calories. 200-300 is the normal range for most people, long distance athletes can push it up to say 600+ calories an hour but even then they are in calorie debt. I burn over 1000 calories hour when I run now.

That has to do with what can the body digest while majority of blood flow is being used elsewhere rather than the stomach.

Nothing to do with what the body could digest.

Doubtless you've seen too then the recommendations of only so much sugar or protein or fat in those meals eaten while doing endurance cardio.

Again, not because the body in general can't handle ratio's outside the recommended, but that is about max uptake DURING the exercise.

heybales

Irrelevant. If meal timing was a nesscary thing, overnight workers would be ****ed.

The hour of the day has nothing to do with it. The point is a person cant take in more calories per meal than their body can process in a set amount of time. The average sedentary person can only process around 300 calories every 3 hours. If you binge and take in 1500 calories at one meal then the excess from that meal is going to fat storage. Even if you didnt meet your calorie goal for the day. Calories convert to fat fast.

And then the fat converts right back to energy ... it's the NET that matters .. say your 300 calorie theory is true .. I eat 2000 cals at breakfast .. 300 are "used" and 1700 are stored as fat. Now as I go through the rest of the day, guess where the energy is coming from .. that "new" fat. Does not matter in the least that an abundance at one meal temporarily gets stored as fat.

And even to that excellent example, take in to account your glucose stores have been getting lowered from the last time they were topped off.

So say 300 used for immediate energy needs, another 500 calories of the carbs is actually stored. Now down to only 1200 converted to fat.

Some calories of protein also got used for repair and building.

And depending on what got converted, that is inefficient and uses extra calories too. Probably down to 1000 that actually needed to be stored.

sullus

Irrelevant. If meal timing was a nesscary thing, overnight workers would be ****ed.

The hour of the day has nothing to do with it. The point is a person cant take in more calories per meal than their body can process in a set amount of time. The average sedentary person can only process around 300 calories every 3 hours. If you binge and take in 1500 calories at one meal then the excess from that meal is going to fat storage. Even if you didnt meet your calorie goal for the day. Calories convert to fat fast.

And then the fat converts right back to energy ... it's the NET that matters .. say your 300 calorie theory is true .. I eat 2000 cals at breakfast .. 300 are "used" and 1700 are stored as fat. Now as I go through the rest of the day, guess where the energy is coming from .. that "new" fat. Does not matter in the least that an abundance at one meal temporarily gets stored as fat.

And even to that excellent example, take in to account your glucose stores have been getting lowered from the last time they were topped off.

So say 300 used for immediate energy needs, another 500 calories of the carbs is actually stored. Now down to only 1200 converted to fat.

Some calories of protein also got used for repair and building.

And depending on what got converted, that is inefficient and uses extra calories too. Probably down to 1000 that actually needed to be stored.

I was just keeping the variables to a minimum ... It's a complex system, to be sure.

ninerbuff

From the article:

You hear it everywhere now: if you want to lose weight, it helps to eat smaller meals more frequently. In other words, spread out the calories (energy) you take in over the course of day instead of eating all those calories in one sitting. This helps to keep your blood sugar level and curb cravings, amongst others.

This is total crap. To paraphrase Martin Berkhan (and the National Institutes of Health), you cannot trick your body into burning more calories by eating more frequently.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9155494, a study which found no metabolic difference between grazing all day or eating one huge meal in a 24 hour period.

See also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20339363, a study which found that 3 high-protein meals provided greater fullness and appetite control than 6 high-protein meals.

Instead, your body assesses your needs in “real-time”, as it happens. To quote Dr. Benardot, in the article: “Much like you can’t provide all the fuel your car needs for a 1000-mile trip at one time, you can’t provide all the fuel your body needs for a day at one time.”

Worst analogy ever. You can't fuel your car for a 1000 mile trip at one time because your gas tank is not physically big enough. Your stomach can hold way more than 300 to 400 calories at once. I know this because I regularly consume 1500 to 1600 calories meals, and I am a small woman. I can throw around some pretty heavy weight for a little chick, so I think my body is having its "real-time" needs met just fine.

Your blood sugar levels fluctuate instead of holding steady, which can result in a loss of lean body mass. In other words, it’s not fat that’s being lost but potentially muscle. And we don’t want to lose muscle. Lowering your lean body mass means your body burns less calories. Not good.

Eating when your blood sugar is low (because you’ve hardly eaten anything all day) causes you to release more insulin — which means more fat is produced.

Just flat out untrue. Your blood sugar, unless you are diabetic or hypoglycemic, just does not swing up and down like that. Your body is very, very efficient at keeping your blood sugar level stable, especially if you eat on a regular schedule rather than at random times throughout the day.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2405701, a study which found that it takes 84 hours of fasting to lower a healthy (meaning non-diabetic) person's blood sugar level enough to alter his or her mental state.

See also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18779282, a study which found that during 48 hours of fasting or severe calorie deprivation, blood sugar is maintained within a normal range.

For example, if your body needs 300 calories in a three hour period, and you’re not feeding it more calories after that three hour period is up, your body is going to start looking for energy in your lean body mass.

Total horse****. It takes SEVERAL hours for amino acids from protein to get into your blood stream. If you eat a meal that is very high in protein (my larger meals regularly contain well over 100 g), you can take that 3-hour window mentioned in the article, and multiply it by about 7 or 8, and your body will still be processing that protein. Muscle catabolism is a product of extreme caloric deficit and depletion of liver glycogen caused by fasting for very long periods, not simply going without a meal for a few hours or even an entire day.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17909674, a study which found that Ramadan fasting actually had a positive effect on body fat percentage

See also: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9040548, a study which found that people who eat most of their calories late in the day preserved more of their muscle mass than those who ate more calories earlier in the day.

BOTTOM LINE: A healthy person's body is a very well-oiled machine, full of intricately designed systems that are capable of things you cannot possibly even imagine. It is designed primarily to keep you alive, which means your blood sugar can't be jumping around all over the place all day long, and your muscle can't be disappearing within a matter of hours. If it were even remotely true that our bodies needed food every 3 to 4 hours in order to function, the human race would've died out with Adam and Eve. Our ancestors went days and even WEEKS without food. I know you don't think they were running down to the 7-11 to grab a burrito every 3 to 4 hours. Once again, this is all horse****.

Ah, actual science. Can we just have an affair already?

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff

Wow jq2122, you are a little fire cracker. I like that.


I have been studying this for quite awhile. We all know that to gain weight all you have to do is have more calories going in than going out. And to lose weight more calories going out than going in. And to maintain you just keep it even. There obviously is a time frame involved. Can you please give me your opinion what that time frame is for a person with a sedentary lifestyle. My research and experience has taken me to a window of 3 hours before the body starts to store it's extra unused fuel concoction as fat. What time frame do you think the human body converts the surplus to fat?


Thank you for your opinion.

Show me the research.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Feisty_Red

my head hurts...someone hold me.

Sarauk2sf

my head hurts...someone hold me.

Feisty_Red

my head hurts...someone hold me.

That's right baby..

likitisplit

Meal timing can still affect weightloss, but its really just a behavioral thing. If you plan meals well, and dont get into desperate, starving situations...then you're less likely to binge or reach for a less-than-nutritious choice

This is the only kernel of truth I've ever been able to find in the suggestion.

myofibril

Here is a good quick read about how many calories and when. Your body can only process so many calories in a 3 hour period.

http://www.fitwatch.com/weight-loss/can-i-eat-all-my-calories-for-the-day-in-one-meal-and-still-lose-weight-649.html

Unfortunately, this was a rather poor summary of an interview between Tom Venuto and respected sports nutritionist Dr Dan Benardot.

It seems the interview is only available to members of Tom Venuto's site but a better discussion is found here:

http://www.bodybuildingsecretslive.com/fitness-videos/meal-frequency/

ndj1979

If eating too many calories at one time harms your weight loss efforts those who practice IF would be huge.

A friend of mine eats in a three hour window each day. 3000 cals worth of food and he's been able to keep up with his losses/maintaining.

He takes in all 3000 calories for the entire day in a 3 hour period?

I did IF Lean Gains 18/6 for about eight months and I would eat my largest meal post workout and was probably consuming about 2000 to 2500 calories in my evening eating window. This worked for me and I actually dropped from about 16% body fat to 13% ...

The only reason I stopped doing lean gains is that I was cooking like all freaking evening and after a long day of work that got tiresome..I know eat four meals a day ..not because of any metabolic benefit..but because it fits my lifestyle better..

The article you posted is, in the words of Joe Biden, Malarky ...

heybales

And now for some possible benefits to meal timing, more along the lines of what ones have been saying anyway, but showing there actually could be advantage.

More for the lifters too, though similar benefits have been found to endurance cardio and giving better recovery for another session the next day.

http://www.humanengine.com/index.php/articles/nutrition/item/nutrient-timing-endures-circadian-rhythm-protein-timing?category_id=3

Conclusion

Energy intake and macros are far from all that matters in a diet and can’t be considered strictly more important than nutrient timing. CRPT, the timing of your protein intake over the day, can aid both muscle gains during a bulk and muscle retention during a cut. It’s so important that it can make the difference between significant hypertrophy and complete stagnation. There is still much that needs clarification by future research, but all current evidence points in the direction that you should consume a significant amount of your daily protein intake later in the day. Whether energy timing also has an effect and what the optimal timing is remain uncertain at this point.

Let CRPT serve as an illustration that, even in a time where the strength community is getting back to basics, sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference.

Take home message: Consume at least a single meal with a good portion of protein in the hours before going to sleep.

shadowkat57

Wow jq2122, you are a little fire cracker. I like that.

Wow. Super condescending!

MissMormie

I have been studying this for quite awhile. We all know that to gain weight all you have to do is have more calories going in than going out. And to lose weight more calories going out than going in. And to maintain you just keep it even. There obviously is a time frame involved. Can you please give me your opinion what that time frame is for a person with a sedentary lifestyle. My research and experience has taken me to a window of 3 hours before the body starts to store it's extra unused fuel concoction as fat. What time frame do you think the human body converts the surplus to fat?

I would actually say there is no time frame involved. Your weight today is the direct result of the calories eaten and calories used over the course of your whole life. That's how dieting works. You've spread out your calories to eat a lot of them earlier in your life and you're now eating less of them to get back to the right balance. In the end the result will be the same as when you've eaten the correct amount every single day.

likitisplit

I have been studying this for quite awhile. We all know that to gain weight all you have to do is have more calories going in than going out. And to lose weight more calories going out than going in. And to maintain you just keep it even. There obviously is a time frame involved. Can you please give me your opinion what that time frame is for a person with a sedentary lifestyle. My research and experience has taken me to a window of 3 hours before the body starts to store it's extra unused fuel concoction as fat. What time frame do you think the human body converts the surplus to fat?

I would actually say there is no time frame involved. Your weight today is the direct result of the calories eaten and calories used over the course of your whole life. That's how dieting works. You've spread out your calories to eat a lot of them earlier in your life and you're now eating less of them to get back to the right balance. In the end the result will be the same as when you've eaten the correct amount every single day.

Good mindset! I think you do train your body to store fat by binging and then losing - even across a lifetime - but I think you're maybe 95% correct.

Cr01502

Horse****.

Pretty much.

I'm wondering how our ancestors survived after they hunted and killed wild animals.

Perhaps they brought down a zebra, made one burger, and just through the rest out.

Or maybe they were all obese?

ken_hogan

The internet is a dangerous place.

But you can't put anything on the internet that isn't true.

Love that comercial!! LOL :laugh:

norcal_yogi

bump...read later def!