Consuming All Calories Before 1PM??

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nkayyy
nkayyy Posts: 46
in Food and Nutrition
I'm one of those crazy people who weighs myself everyday (bad, I know), and I've found that on days when I consume a good 1500-1800 calories in the morning/early afternoon (basically no later than 1) and then burn off the extra calories later to hit 1200, I "lose weight" the next day.

As I've been stuck at a high plateau for most of the week, I find it interesting that I only seem to "lose" weight on days when I condense my eating to early in the morning.

Is this legit fat loss or just water weight? Why is this happening? Is it a good thing, or is it unhealthy? Any advice would be much appreciated, also advice on how to drop the extra 3 lbs and get to my low weight would be great.
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Replies

  • kaseyAnne425
    kaseyAnne425 Posts: 230
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    This seems a bit unhealthy to me. So wait, you eat ALL of your calories before 1pm?? Do you eat dinner?!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    You are likely just playing with water weight/glycogen stores and the amount of food/waste in your stomach

    Does the weight stay off?

    ETA - a plateau is not over a week, a plateau is not losing weight over a number of weeks, like 5-6 weeks.
    Our weight fluctuates constantly.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    Basically, today was very unhealthy and high-sugar. It looked like:

    6:30 AM 1 muffin w/ butter, some grapes and figs

    8:30 AM waffle, blueberries, peanut butter

    12:00 PM spinach salad, small piece of garlic bread, frozen yogurt, fruit, chocolate chips

    The total ended up a little under 1900 calories.
  • mlnick69
    mlnick69 Posts: 84
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    When do you weigh in? If you stop eating at 1pm and weigh yourself the following morning then you should be lighter since your body has used up all the stored food energy and your belly is empty.
  • WhoIsAmber
    WhoIsAmber Posts: 161 Member
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    I suppose this would be like intermittent fasting, your eating window is the beginning of the day; as opposed to most people have their eating window in the middle or later in the day.

    If you're getting all your calories in, hitting your macros, you're not feeling weak towards the end of the day and you're losing weight that is staying off, I don't see why you should stop doing what you're doing.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    You are likely just playing with water weight/glycogen stores and the amount of food/waste in your stomach

    Does the weight stay off?

    I've only done it once before so I'm not sure. I ate like this on Sunday, finally got down to 135.0 and broke my plateau. The next day I was back up to 136. So it didn't stay off, but it's an extra pound that I've put on just this week from a random binge that I never thought was "real" weight to begin with. So I'm kind of just trying to get the scale back down to 133 (my low weight) so I can continue with the weightloss process.
  • Gdeeaz
    Gdeeaz Posts: 60
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    I'm assuming you weigh yourself sometime in the early morning. If you finish eating at 1pm and weigh yourself at 6am your food has worked its way through your system and you have less in your stomach then you would if you finished eating at 6pm.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    When do you weigh in? If you stop eating at 1pm and weigh yourself the following morning then you should be lighter since your body has used up all the stored food energy and your belly is empty.

    That's a pretty good point. I always weigh in first thing in the morning, so by then it's been quite a long time since my last meal.

    I've always been an early eater, though. I hate the feeling of going to bed with a full stomach so I never eat past 6 unless I'm with friends or just haven't gotten around to dinner for whatever reason. I also tend to work out late at night--sometimes as late as 11 or 12.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    I'm assuming you weigh yourself sometime in the early morning. If you finish eating at 1pm and weigh yourself at 6am your food has worked its way through your system and you have less in your stomach then you would if you finished eating at 6pm.

    So does that mean it isn't actual weight loss? I'm trying to understand the process and why eating early affects me that way.
  • lina011
    lina011 Posts: 427 Member
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    i dunno how long you can keep up with this but im thinking because your consuming your foods during the day your burning off that energy. honestly 1900 cal before 1pm what are you eating!!!
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    i dunno how long you can keep up with this but im thinking because your consuming your foods during the day your burning off that energy. honestly 1900 cal before 1pm what are you eating!!!

    Yeah, that's probably true. This isn't necessarily something I want to do every day, just a cycle I've picked up lately and wondered about. I do like to eat nice dinners and such and wouldn't want to eliminate that entirely.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    I'm assuming you weigh yourself sometime in the early morning. If you finish eating at 1pm and weigh yourself at 6am your food has worked its way through your system and you have less in your stomach then you would if you finished eating at 6pm.

    So does that mean it isn't actual weight loss? I'm trying to understand the process and why eating early affects me that way.

    No, it is not actual weight loss. Any number of factors affect scale weight. Things like undigested food and waste can affect weight. Since you stopped eating much earlier, more of the food would have made its way through your digestive tract. I am assuming you weight after you go to the washroom.
    The other part that I was talking about is glycogen store. Glycogen requires water to be stored in your muscles, it is the source of energy your muscles use. As you deplete your glycogen stores, you also release the water stored in the muscles. Think of it as a fuel tank. SInce you last eat at 1 pm, and continue to use glycogen, your weight goes down slightly. Once you eat, those stores are replenished, and the weight goes back up slightly. This is also what happens when people cut carbs drastically and drop 10 lbs (and why people post panicked questions when they "cheat" on a low carb plan, eat some carbs and spike up in weight). It is merely water weight, not fat loss.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Food has weight. Water has weight. When you eat, you gain weight. If you eat a pound of steak, you will be a pound heavier. If you fast long enough, that food gets digested and eliminated, therefore, a pound lighter again. 2 cups of liquid weigh a pound. Drink a 20 oz bottle of water, you just gained 1.25 pounds. Go to the bathroom or sweat and you will lose it again.

    Why do people think the foods they eat and drink are weightless? Incidentally, weight alone is a terrible measure to go by, fluctuates way too much to really mean anything, unless you're watching a certain 10 pound range to stay inside of.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    I'm assuming you weigh yourself sometime in the early morning. If you finish eating at 1pm and weigh yourself at 6am your food has worked its way through your system and you have less in your stomach then you would if you finished eating at 6pm.

    So does that mean it isn't actual weight loss? I'm trying to understand the process and why eating early affects me that way.

    No, it is not actual weight loss. Any number of factors affect scale weight. Things like undigested food and waste can affect weight. Since you stopped eating much earlier, more of the food would have made its way through your digestive tract. I am assuming you weight after you go to the washroom.
    The other part that I was talking about is glycogen store. Glycogen requires water to be stored in your muscles, it is the source of energy your muscles use. As you deplete your glycogen stores, you also release the water stored in the muscles. Think of it as a fuel tank. SInce you last eat at 1 pm, and continue to use glycogen, your weight goes down slightly. Once you eat, those stores are replenished, and the weight goes back up slightly. This is also what happens when people cut carbs drastically and drop 10 lbs (and why people post panicked questions when they "cheat" on a low carb plan, eat some carbs and spike up in weight). It is merely water weight, not fat loss.

    That makes sense to me. It's just that I've sort of been waiting to drop those couple random pounds I gained this week, so I assumed when I woke up a pound lighter that my body was just getting on board with my healthy habits. But your explanation makes more logical sense by far.
  • Achrya
    Achrya Posts: 16,913 Member
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    Basically, today was very unhealthy and high-sugar. It looked like:

    6:30 AM 1 muffin w/ butter, some grapes and figs

    8:30 AM waffle, blueberries, peanut butter

    12:00 PM spinach salad, small piece of garlic bread, frozen yogurt, fruit, chocolate chips

    The total ended up a little under 1900 calories.

    A) this is unhealthy? Well hell.

    B) We call this intermentant fasting. There's a girl here on MFP who only eats one meal a day. As far as I can tell she isn't suffering any ill effects, unless an amazing body is an ill effect.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    I only get gas on the way TO work. Never on the way BACK from work. Does this change my fuel economy?
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    Food has weight. Water has weight. When you eat, you gain weight. If you eat a pound of steak, you will be a pound heavier. If you fast long enough, that food gets digested and eliminated, therefore, a pound lighter again. 2 cups of liquid weigh a pound. Drink a 20 oz bottle of water, you just gained 1.25 pounds. Go to the bathroom or sweat and you will lose it again.

    Why do people think the foods they eat and drink are weightless? Incidentally, weight alone is a terrible measure to go by, fluctuates way too much to really mean anything, unless you're watching a certain 10 pound range to stay inside of.

    That makes sense, and I've certainly noticed it first-hand. I just have so little weight left to lose that I tend to watch the scale very closely and notice patterns in my eating that make it go up or down.
  • catfive1
    catfive1 Posts: 529 Member
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    Basically, today was very unhealthy and high-sugar. It looked like:

    6:30 AM 1 muffin w/ butter, some grapes and figs

    8:30 AM waffle, blueberries, peanut butter

    12:00 PM spinach salad, small piece of garlic bread, frozen yogurt, fruit, chocolate chips

    The total ended up a little under 1900 calories.


    Not sure how this would add up to 1900 calories. Very little protein so I'm sure you aren't hitting your macros.
  • faely
    faely Posts: 144 Member
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    Unhealthy, unrealistic.

    The only thing on your menu you posted that I saw that was 'bad' was the muffin with butter.

    You don't give any info on your activity throughout the day. You could be consuming 1900 calories before 1pm and burning 700 after.

    Get rid of the scale, seriously. You seem to be obsessed over it. I was the same way and stopped using it entirely. At your weight it's not important if you weigh 135 or 132.3. You're at a healthy range unless you're like 4 feet tall.

    Just eat healthy and burn calories. That's all it is about.
  • nkayyy
    nkayyy Posts: 46
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    Basically, today was very unhealthy and high-sugar. It looked like:

    6:30 AM 1 muffin w/ butter, some grapes and figs

    8:30 AM waffle, blueberries, peanut butter

    12:00 PM spinach salad, small piece of garlic bread, frozen yogurt, fruit, chocolate chips

    The total ended up a little under 1900 calories.


    Not sure how this would add up to 1900 calories. Very little protein so I'm sure you aren't hitting your macros.

    One word: portions. Also, I tend to slightly overestimate my intake just to be safe.

    I know I didn't eat enough protein. It was one of those days when carbs were just right there! :(

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