Meal timing question

Scottb4857
Scottb4857 Posts: 38 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Can anyone point me to some specific (I mean actual scientific studies, not sponsored by the supplement companies) on whether or not late night eating truly causes either more weight gain or slows weight loss? I have always believed that weight loss is based on calories in vs calories burned, either through daily activities or exercise specific and timing of food has very little effect except for maybe the elite athlete/body builder.

The reason for the question is simply because due to my current home/work life, I have found that my workouts are done late, usually staring 8:30 - 9:00 with at least an hour of cardio. By the time I get done, I am very hungry and find that it's not easy sleeping when I am hungry. So I tend to eat something a little solid and top off the protein with a skim milk, whey protein and berries smoothie (love that, like a healthy milkshake to me).

Thanks for reading and hoping for some good answers or links to real studies!

Replies

  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,281 Member
    I can't be bothered googling them for you, but your correct in your assumption.
  • theryan244
    theryan244 Posts: 65 Member
    Meal timing/frequency will have ZERO impact on overall body composition. This website may have some relevant research to substantiate that claim, although I can tell you with certainty it is true for healthy individuals. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

    This short video relating to meal frequency may also be beneficial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKXWLJuWoh0
    I highly recommend the channel the video is uploaded to as well.
  • Scottb4857
    Scottb4857 Posts: 38 Member
    Ok thanks, hate when I forget to engage my brain before I start typing. Think it took me about three minutes to find lots of studies.

    So how do I remove my stupid posts?
  • Firefox7275
    Firefox7275 Posts: 2,040 Member
    I can point you in the direction of a book 'Nutrient Timing' published by Human Kinetics, the most highly respected fitness publisher, based on research and useable at degree level (not a commercial diet book). If you want more up to date research run a selection of search terms here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=meal timing bodyfat

    There is no simple answer to your question, if you have trained hard and depleted your glycogen stores, some/ much of the food you eat after the workout will replenish them. Also your metabolic rate is increased for several hours after a workout. If you eat more than you burn overnight and need for replenishing stores you may gain weight. However you could then burn that fat off again by not eating enough the next day or you could burn off muscle, there are many variables as to why your body would turn to one over the other. What you eat is as relevant as when you eat, saturated animals fats are easy for the body to convert to body fat because the structure is similar to our own, protein wastes a lot of calories being converted to glucose and then on to fat.
  • theryan244
    theryan244 Posts: 65 Member
    "What you eat is as relevant as when eat." ... No. Neither is as relevant as you are seemingly implying.
  • hkry3250
    hkry3250 Posts: 140
    well, a simple answer to your question is this. It takes 24 hrs for your food to digest. Doesn't matter when you eat it, you have 24 hours to use it. so, it' your afraid of gaining weight, because you eat before bed, don't be. You're body goes into a fasting state by morning anyways.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    First, I think you'd need to look for any evidence that supports the notion that eating late at night is somehow detrimental to weight loss under tightly controlled conditions. I don't think you'll find any because the idea was never really supported to begin with, much like the (false) notion that eating frequently somehow boosts your metabolism (it doesn't).

    That being said, these aren't great studies but they do reinforce the position that eating at night is perfectly fine:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3508745
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17909674

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