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

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  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Ps I lost 30lbs in the past by eating 1200 cals for dinner on a daily basis. And my dinner time is 9pm-1am :D
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    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.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
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    So Bob will store a little bit of fat overnight.

    If eating in a calorie deficit, the next day Bob will burn that little bit of fat and a little bit more. The net results is burning more fat during the day than he is storing at night, therefor he loses weight.
  • sullus
    sullus Posts: 2,839 Member
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    As a matter of fact, why are we hung up on an arbitrary unit we call a day?
  • EricCowperthwaite
    EricCowperthwaite Posts: 450
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    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:
    What???? You mean that's not possible? I thought you could do that with a lot of cardio?

    More seriously, you can actually build muscle while eatng at a deficit ... IF you are overweight and have fat to burn up to eliminate the deficit. If, however, you are lean, you cannot build muscle at a deficit. That myth is only half false :ohwell:
  • jjrichard83
    jjrichard83 Posts: 483 Member
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    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...
  • karenhray7
    karenhray7 Posts: 219 Member
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    Fun shenanigans between bed and sleep.

    100 points for creativity!
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
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    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.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    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 2110

    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.

    DMjxo6x.png

    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.

    O7LkeWV.gif
  • S_Arr_Uh
    S_Arr_Uh Posts: 77 Member
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    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.
  • Cadori
    Cadori Posts: 4,810 Member
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    If Bob is eating Ben and Jerry's while watching The Biggest Loser, Bob is a woman
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,660 Member
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    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.
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
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    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:
    What???? You mean that's not possible? I thought you could do that with a lot of cardio?

    More seriously, you can actually build muscle while eatng at a deficit ... IF you are overweight and have fat to burn up to eliminate the deficit. If, however, you are lean, you cannot build muscle at a deficit. That myth is only half false :ohwell:

    NO NO NO!! This sort of talk will create a thread wihin a thread, it will create a MFP worm hole and we'll all get lost through it. Just don't go there!!
  • RiannonC
    RiannonC Posts: 145 Member
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    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.
  • jjrichard83
    jjrichard83 Posts: 483 Member
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    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 don't think he is missing the point at all. We calculate our calories on a day to day basis, but the body doesn't look at it that way, only we do to make it easier for us to manage the info.
  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
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    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.
  • jjrichard83
    jjrichard83 Posts: 483 Member
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    If Bob is eating Ben and Jerry's while watching The Biggest Loser, Bob is a woman

    Are you suggesting that Bob might be a Karen? lol.


    If spreading out your meals so you eat healthier foods later at night works, then go for it! However, the snacking at night becomes a problem when you have already eaten your calories for the day, and are grabbing a snack to fill the hunger. A 1200 calorie snack! lol. I know I have done that before w/ half a pizza. Not good...
  • karenhray7
    karenhray7 Posts: 219 Member
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    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.



    There. Right there. That's what I was looking for.

    And I probably should have titled this "...eating before bed won't kill my weight loss".
  • autumnlily31185
    autumnlily31185 Posts: 279 Member
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    If Bob is eating Ben and Jerry's while watching The Biggest Loser, Bob is a woman


    LMAO
  • karenhray7
    karenhray7 Posts: 219 Member
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    If Bob is eating Ben and Jerry's while watching The Biggest Loser, Bob is a woman

    Are you suggesting that Bob might be a Karen? lol.


    No, I prefer to eat my pints of B&J alone in the dark.

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