Evening snack or squeeze in more calories during the day?

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CeleryStalker
CeleryStalker Posts: 665 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Is the jury still out on this? I'm in the process of creating a new normal, logging my food and exercise, etc, like so many folks here. I'm just concerned with timing of food. Does it matter if I choose to have a healthy snack after dinner/before bed rather than cramming in more calories during the day? The two general schools of thought I'm familiar with are:

1. Eat your calories, doesn't matter when, just get them in
2. Don't eat within a specified time (couple hours, usually) before bedtime because you're just fueling your body but not actually using the fuel.

Thoughts?

Replies

  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    edited March 2015
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    shrug- I don't like being hungry at night- so I eat less from 7-1 (edit- by eat less I mean I don't eat anything usually till 1230) and start snacking and then have a big meal around 10 PM.


    It's my personal preference- sometimes it works- sometimes not so much.

    There is no reason to not eat right before you go to bed other than "I get heart burn" and or "I get weird dreams" and or- I am out of food for the day.

    So - pick your poison- It doesn't matter outside of personal tastes. People who work out in the AM might prefer having a later night snack also to help for the AM.
  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited March 2015
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    It doesn't matter in any sort of significant way for weight loss purposes. Now, if you find your sleep disturbed due to eating too late (some people have that issue) you might want to avoid it. But from a straight up weight loss perspective, meal/snack timing is 99% irrelevant.
  • senglishrose
    senglishrose Posts: 86 Member
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    (reading and watching as others post)
  • CeleryStalker
    CeleryStalker Posts: 665 Member
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    Good deal. And wow, MFP has put in some updates since I was here last. I'm really diggin' the new features!

    Glad to not need to give up the evening snack. I'm truly satiated through the day, but my workouts are at night before dinner and I've typically got an appetite a couple hours after dinner. Plus, it feels nice to be able to have something tasty after a day full of behaving :) Our evening snack is generally half a cup of ice cream with some fresh berries. Is it after dinner yet? LOL
  • CeleryStalker
    CeleryStalker Posts: 665 Member
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    Very curious though...if feeding time isn't really that important, what's with the advice we generally see that steers people towards eating small amounts of food every 2-3 hours to 'stoke the metabolism'. Is that just a crock? (We've all heard the fire/kindling/huge log analogy....lol)

  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    CeleryStalker wrote: »
    Very curious though...if feeding time isn't really that important, what's with the advice we generally see that steers people towards eating small amounts of food every 2-3 hours to 'stoke the metabolism'. Is that just a crock? (We've all heard the fire/kindling/huge log analogy....lol)

    sustainability and long term management and a good solid dish of hookey. the metabolism thing is rubbish- but there is some truth to people being able to deal with hunger cravings better that way.
  • CeleryStalker
    CeleryStalker Posts: 665 Member
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    That's been my experience. If I eat little meals every few hours, I tend to be almost uncomfortably full throughout the day, whereas if I don't, I end up grazing and consuming way more calories than I would have if I just ate what I planned for the day (and still hungry, so what's up with that?! Probably the types of food I'm eating when planned -balanced, protein heavy- as opposed to the crap I'm shoveling in when I'm grazing) What that may or may not be doing to my metabolism is beyond me!

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