No eating after 6pm

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  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    MelWick524 wrote: »
    emilyesq wrote: »
    Last night, at 11pm, I ate a brownie, a serving of beef jerky, some chips, and 5 marshmallow Peeps. I'm losing weight just fine. I've been slim and I've been obese, there was never a time when I didn't eat at night.

    Skinny people are skinny because they don't overeat; timing of meals means nothing. People like to point to reasons X Y and Z for why skinny people are skinny, but the truth is, people are skinny because they don't eat as much as fat people, and they move more. Period. There's no other factor to the equation, at least not for the general population. That skinny guy at your work who you watch eating two burgers and fries every day for lunch, he doesn't have a "fast metabolism", he doesn't eat 17 Big Macs as long as it's not after 7pm, he just eats less overall and moves more than someone who eats the same lunch but is overweight.

    i will disagree with this. I have known many skinny people who ate like pigs and barely moved more than a sloth. perhaps it will come back to bite them some day, but some people, are naturally skinny (not necessarily HEALTHY, but SKINNY).

    ^This is my husband. I can't figure it out. He used to have an active job, but now, he doesn't move much all day, but eats like garbage and stays skinny (like...an entire carton of ice cream and a half a box of lucky charms for dinner alone kind of garbage). WTF?! lol @ndj1979, you should start some sort of thread with your thoughts on this. Sometimes you're a little abrasive, but your posts are always insightful and eye-opening! :smiley:

    oh, I have started threads...

    some are still going...

    others have been locked down..

    I have another one coming soon...
  • gpstreet
    gpstreet Posts: 184 Member
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    cold hard truth like ice cream. mmmmm chocolate
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited March 2015
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    I eat at 8:30 pm pretty much every night...I'm a lean, mean machine.

    meal timing has pretty much nothing to do with your metabolism and stuff...

    Also, I've always wondered how people pull this off anyway...who are these people who can be done with their day, including their dinner by 6...*kitten*, I'm usually still at the office.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    I'm starting to think that it might just matter when you eat - but I also suspect that better/worse times differ per person and I'm certain that we don't know what they are.
    -
    http://jbr.sagepub.com/content/19/5/388.abstract (cellular clocks in organ tissues)
  • Sophsmother
    Sophsmother Posts: 83 Member
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    gpstreet wrote: »
    I was chatting with a pensioner down the allotment the other weekend. This chap is skinny and confessed he never had a problem with his weight. He did tell me that he tries to stick to one rule which was never to eat after 6pm. Just wondered if there was any anicdotal evidence associated this rule.

    I remember that this was one of the things Oprah did when she was losing weight. I like to get all my meals in by 6 or 6:30. I hate going to bed full and am miserable if I have to eat a late dinner.
  • 47Jacqueline
    47Jacqueline Posts: 6,993 Member
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    I usually eat dinner after 6pm. My only attempt, not too successfully, is to stop eating 3 hours before bedtime because of a reflux issue and my doctor suggested it.
  • ShibaEars
    ShibaEars Posts: 3,928 Member
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    I usually eat dinner around 8:00. I'd be miserable if I stopped eating at 6:00, and then I'd be shaky and feeling sick the next morning.
  • hollymlb1
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    I work second shift and rarely get up before noon. I also rarely go to bed before 3am. I eat my last meal of the day around midnight to 1am depending on how hungry I am when I get home from work. As long as I eat less calories than I burn I lose weight. The time you eat really doesn't have an affect on it. Though I have noticed as the day goes on it is harder and harder for me to say no to over eating. So if cutting yourself off at a certain time helps with that than it could be beneficial. I am going to try planning exactly what I am going to eat at the beginning of every day and stick to it. That way I'm not able to consider adding other things to it, or double up on servings. Not sure if it will work but its a plan.
  • lthames0810
    lthames0810 Posts: 722 Member
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    You could look at the intermittent fasting groups. While there is no particular time issues - there are those that try to eat all of their food within a 6-8 hour time span and then eat nothing the remaining hours. This helps them restrict calories (it really is all CICO but how you limit CI without going crazy is why there are so many options) and they believe that once you get closer to your ideal weight, the body resists mobilizing fat stores until there has been a certain number of hours deficit. I don't want to try it - but keep considering. . .

    Before I tried 16:8, after eating all my calories for the day, I still thought about snacks I would like to have, but couldn't because there were no calories left. Often times I would give in and eat them anyway. Although I know timing doesn't matter for weight loss, those extra calories were stalling me out.

    Now, I eat only in an eight hour window that ends after my last meal of the day. At that time, not only am I out of calories, but I also am not "allowed" to eat more because the 8 hour window is closed. It's a fine distinction and I'm probably not describing it clearly, but it has stopped my night time snacking cold. Also, going 16 hours without eating has gotten me used to disregarding mild hunger signals, so even if I get a little hungry later in the evening, it doesn't cause me to snack.

    I don't know about that idea that fat stores resist mobilizing after a certain point. I never heard that one before.
  • jhall260
    jhall260 Posts: 111 Member
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    I generally don't eat after 8 or so. In bed at 10. Otherwise I often feel bloated for my early AM run. That's the only reason for me. The only reason it works for me is because It helps me stay within my caloric goal for the day.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Sewilban wrote: »
    I understand the general principal behind your friend's rule, but think it should be scaled back a bit. In the research I've done around nutrition, avoiding nighttime eating does seem to be a recurring theme. But instead of focusing on not eating at all after a certain time, the idea is more centered around not overeating at night, or saving all of your calories for dinnertime - it's more about proper portioning throughout the entire day.
    Yes, of course it is. Meal timing and stopping eating at a specific time can be a help to stop overeating at night.
    The earlier you eat, the more active time you still have left in the day for your body to burn it off, versus eating - say, half - of your day's calories at night, where the next thing you do is go to sleep.
    And here it goes again.
    Why wouldn't the body be able to burn off yesterday's calories? Heck, recently I've been burning off excess calories eaten all the way back to 2008!
  • punkuate
    punkuate Posts: 127 Member
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    I only eat after 6pm.
  • marinabreeze
    marinabreeze Posts: 141 Member
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    I work until 7pm and it takes me another 40 minutes to get home. The vast majority of my calories are eaten after 8pm. I still lose. I won't knock what works for some, but it doesn't mean it works for everyone.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    gpstreet wrote: »
    I was chatting with a pensioner down the allotment the other weekend. This chap is skinny and confessed he never had a problem with his weight. He did tell me that he tries to stick to one rule which was never to eat after 6pm. Just wondered if there was any anicdotal evidence associated this rule.

    Its a myth that not eating after a certain time leads to weight loss.

    However, I know many people who don't eat after dinner because all they reach for are things higher in calories that will put them over their calories for the day.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    I dont eat after 7pm. I heard you arent meant to eat 3hrs before bed also.. and have been doing this for over a year and it works for me. If i eat after i find ive gained in the morning..

    Guess it works for some but not for others i think. Give it a go hun you have nothing to lose x

    But, it's not fat gain, it's just water retention from the extra food or just from the extra food period. Weight naturally fluctuates too.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
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    gpstreet wrote: »
    I was chatting with a pensioner down the allotment the other weekend. This chap is skinny and confessed he never had a problem with his weight. He did tell me that he tries to stick to one rule which was never to eat after 6pm. Just wondered if there was any anicdotal evidence associated this rule.

    As a pensioner, I am guessing he is elderly. Many people, as they get older, find it difficult to sleep on a full stomach so I am guessing that he doesn't eat after 6 PM because of that, not for any attempt to maintain a slim physique. This is why restaurants that have senior menus are busiest around 4-5 PM and why programs like meals on wheels delivers the main meal for lunch.

    As long as you average fewer calories in than you average calories out, you will lose weight. Average the same and you will maintain.

  • crosbylee
    crosbylee Posts: 3,454 Member
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    gpstreet wrote: »
    I dont eat after 7pm. I heard you arent meant to eat 3hrs before bed also.. and have been doing this for over a year and it works for me. If i eat after i find ive gained in the morning..

    Guess it works for some but not for others i think. Give it a go hun you have nothing to lose x

    I have heard the same thing, don't eat within 3 hours before bedtime. I usually hit the sack at 9.30pm so 6.30pm would be my cutoff time. I usually weigh myself first thing in the morning....(well nearly first thing, nature call :-) ) . So excess food added before bed will just sit in the gut right ?

    I think this has more to do with issues of acid reflux.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
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    I actually went to a meeting/talk with a circadian rhythm researcher today, and there actually is quite a bit of scientific evidence accumulating that eating more food earlier in the day is better for blood sugar control and weight loss. Still a lot more research is needed, and the most critical thing is to find a plan that you can sustain long-term, so I think it's a tweak to make only if it would work well for you. I do try to stop eating after 7:30 and with what I learned today I'll probably make my breakfast a little larger and my dinner a little smaller.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    emilyesq wrote: »
    Last night, at 11pm, I ate a brownie, a serving of beef jerky, some chips, and 5 marshmallow Peeps. I'm losing weight just fine. I've been slim and I've been obese, there was never a time when I didn't eat at night.

    Skinny people are skinny because they don't overeat; timing of meals means nothing. People like to point to reasons X Y and Z for why skinny people are skinny, but the truth is, people are skinny because they don't eat as much as fat people, and they move more. Period. There's no other factor to the equation, at least not for the general population. That skinny guy at your work who you watch eating two burgers and fries every day for lunch, he doesn't have a "fast metabolism", he doesn't eat 17 Big Macs as long as it's not after 7pm, he just eats less overall and moves more than someone who eats the same lunch but is overweight.

    i will disagree with this. I have known many skinny people who ate like pigs and barely moved more than a sloth. perhaps it will come back to bite them some day, but some people, are naturally skinny (not necessarily HEALTHY, but SKINNY).

    If you believe people are naturally skinny, do you also believe they are naturally overweight?

    I used to believe this, especially about my adorable stick-thin brother. I told him he can eat a lot because he's so naturally thin, and he said, "No, I'm not. I just burn off what I eat." I also learned that he doesn't eat the loads of calories I thought he did. :)

    I don't believe anyone is naturally fat, skinny, or just right.