3-4 hours before bed?

Meal timing has no effect on weight loss. As long as you are in a calorie deficit, your body doesn't care when you eat.

If you tend to binge at night, it's a good idea to cut off early so you aren't tempted.

If you have heartburn or any other medical reason that eating late can cause, it's a good idea to cut off early.

Otherwise? Eat when you want. From January-April I ate dinner three nights a week between 8 and 10, and usually went to bed 11-12.

Bull...
Every night for the last 8 months i eat the main portion of my calories
Snacking on 300 calories of popcorn...fruit and almonds

All around 9 to 10 PM (about) and lost 92 pounds just fine!

As others have said, it's bull. I eat a snack shortly before bedtime every evening. If I were to quit eating three or four hours before bedtime, I'd end up eating way too much because will power doesn't work as well as not being hungry.

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Me, I'm much more likely to stay under my calorie goal if I save over half my allotted calories for dinner and late-night snacking. I like to eat at night. Just be sure to stay at a calorie deficit! And become crazy about weighing all your food.

Don't eat too much, but you are actually pretty active at night and do burn calories still so a light snack would be burned off when sleeping

Yep, it's bull. I'll add that I think the reason people believe in this is because when you stop eating several hours earlier you're essentially fasting for a longer period of time before breakfast, so people who weigh themselves in the morning might notice a slightly lower weight simply due to there being less food in the system.

Apparently those people who eat late at night typically are over eating more calories than they need to, so that is why they gain weight. Also they are more likely to be eating higher cal foods later at night. Its not the time on the clock, it's that eating fistfuls of chips out of a packet will send you over your calories.

I eat most my calories in the afternoon and at night because I know that's when I tend to get hungry and tempted to eat the entire contents of the pantry! It can sometimes make you weigh more the next morning if you have eaten later, so be mindful of that if you weigh yourself in the morning. But no, it doesn't cause weight gain long-term. It is the quantity of calories in vs calories out that cause you to gain weight.

cocolattes wrote: »

i always save some calories at the end of my day for cocoa pebbles....

What are cocoa pebbles?!

I like to save room in my calorie allowance to have some sort of snack around 9-10 at night. That way I don't feel hungry when I go to bed and am not hungry in the morning until my stomach "wakes up."

Sounds like the problem with eating late is from overeating due to not eating enough earlier. Personally, I need to eat something before bed or hunger will wake me up at 3 AM. I have oatmeal and fruit, which is about 200 calories, and if I'm hungrier, I throw in an egg, which is better than it sounds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/opinion/sunday/the-dangers-of-eating-late-at-night.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/eating-late-causes-indigestion-and-weight-gain-2015-1

...Our bodies aren't designed to eat a big meal and collapse on the couch or the bed afterwards. Sitting upright helps us digest — it lets gravity do the work of keeping the contents of our stomach down. In people with heartburn, laying down can cause the acid in the stomach to leak out into the esophagus, or "foodpipe," causing reflux.

Since the stomach takes about three hours to empty itself, waiting at least this amount of time before laying down or sleeping is a good idea.

Koufman's thinking — backed by decades of sage medical advice — has been borne out by recent research. A 2005 study of the nighttime eating habits of 350 people found that eating dinner within 3 hours of bedtime was positively associated with their risk of developing reflux symptoms, even after controlling for smoking, body mass index, and other factors that could affect heartburn.

Waiting so long to eat that you are ravenous by dinnertime can also cause you to eat too quickly and overstuff yourself. Since your brain takes about 20 minutes to register a full stomach, you could eat too much before you know you're satiated. If this is happening more than one or two nights a week, it could be causing you to gain weight...

0neel0vee wrote: »

Hi, I'm new and trying to lose around 30 pounds. I have heard from alot of people that not eating 3-4 hours before you go to bed helps you lose weight. But I've also heard alot of people say that it's bull. I was just wondering if some of you guys recommend that or do this and have seen results?

You have to consider that many of these "tips" and pointers are coming from the perspective of people who are not calorie counting...so one way to control caloric intake without counting could be to not eat anything after 6 or not eat anything 3-4 hours before bed, etc. These types of "tips" as well as other diets and what not are designed to do one thing...put you in a calorie deficit...because that's really the most important aspect of weight loss and any diet that works does so on that premise.

I lost over 40 Lbs and I eat dinner every night around 8:30/9:00 PM and I'm in bed by 10.

I almost always have yogurt, protein powder, and strawberries not long before I go to sleep. Hasn't stopped me from losing 110 pounds.