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

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Then you're not concerned about Bob losing weight. Because those are the key, no, the ONLY relevant points as to if he will lose weight or not.

As a matter of fact, why are we hung up on an arbitrary unit we call a day?

yes it is don't eat after u go bed I have done that let me tell you I pay for it the next day I see 1 to 2 lbs weight gain no good

There is no way you see 1-2 lb of fat the next day - maybe fecal matter and/or water retention, but not fat. That would mean you'd have to eat 3500-7000 calories extra to see that amount stored as fat from the night to the morning, and even then, I don't know if fat can be stored that quickly...

I've been eating to maintain my weight for almost a year now, and even lately eating at a little bit of a surplus as I heal from a major surgery. Not sure why it was important to say that...but my calories from MFP to maintain my current weight are about 1800. I eat all day long, but I generally try to keep my meals lower calorie and have at least 500 calories to eat after dinner. I eat right up until bedtime. Sometimes I get out of bed and grab a little snack if I want one. Anyhow, the point here is that typically have eaten 500-700 calories every night after dinner for the past say 6 months and have been able to maintain my weight. I am currently up a little because I am not as concerned because I just want to heal. It does not matter when you eat.

What if Bob eats an approx. 400 calorie snack before bed? By your calculations, he CAN eat SOME food before bed, because well, he'll burn it off by sleeping.

Is this where the "eat 6 small meals a day" crap came from, too? So you burn each meal before you eat the next one? Why not 24 x 60 calorie meals spread evenly throughout the entire day, then? Wouldn't that be best?

I like 2 meals a day. Breakfast just makes me hungry, and I like bigger meals. And frequently I fall asleep directly after the second one.

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.

My understanding is that if you haven't eaten recently the body will turn first to your stored glycogen and then to your fat after the glycogen is depleted. So if Bob hasn't been eating much during the day, that is relevant, because his glycogen will be low, which means that the extra calories from the meal he consumed, which aren't all being burned right away because he's going to sleep, will go to replenish his glycogen stores rather than immediately being stored as fat. Even if he was storing the calories as fat, that wouldn't matter because if he was still in a state of deficit over a 24 hour period, presumably he would simply burn those stored calories during the day the next day while he wasn't eating much.

So the common consensus that time of day doesn't matter in terms of fat storage is true, all that matters for weight loss or gain is deficit or surplus, but for me I can't eat my calories late at night because I have much more energy if I eat them during the day as I am using them. Personal preference.

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.

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

Umm...confused. Didn't you just answer your own question by saying that Bob is still losing weight and therefore NOT getting fat.

If Bob loses 2 lbs during the day not eating, then goes to bed and eats a whole pizza in bed, falls asleep to reruns of The Cosby Show and the body processes the food and ends up storing X amount of calories as fat, but this is only a gain of 1 1/2 lbs, then Bob still has a net loss of .5 lbs for the day...or even for the night.

So I will tell you again, eating before bed won't make you fat because its about the total amount of calories in/calories as a whole...not just segments of a day.