Is metabolism in any way shape or form time dependent?

Hello,.

As in during certain times of the day it's faster or slower?

I got in an argument with someone that it doesn't matter, it'll be the same speed and they said it's slower at night so we should eat light food before going to bed.

I was like, it's strange because I think it'll work better during night since most voluntary body movements cease during sleep, so it should work better ergo timings shouldn't matter.

I'm sure truth is somewhere in the middle?

Replies

  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    Your metabolism is the same day or night, it has no idea what time of day it is.
  • mecoconleche
    mecoconleche Posts: 86 Member
    In my opinion, it's the same. Day or night the metabolism is constantly burning calories by breathing, pumping blood etc. But during the day we burn more because we are constantly moving(work, gym etc.) I wouldn't worry about meal timing since it's irrelevant
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.
  • Whitezombiegirl
    Whitezombiegirl Posts: 1,042 Member
    The rate at which you convert stored energy into atp ( available energy) is dependant on your energy requirement at the time. If you run your energy requirement will be more than if you walked, walking uses more than sitting. Digestion, healing, growing etc all requires energy. We have a base level rmr which is the rate at rest.

    There is no need to eat light at night though. It all averages out over time. Any surplus calories will be stored and next time you require more energy than you put in ( i.e defecit) your body will use the stored energy to make up the difference. Works out in the end.

    From bbc documentary:
    The body does know what time it is, its called circadian rythum. Research is continuing in this area. when we are preparing for sleep sugars and fats are released into the blood stream in readiness for healing and growth etc. They have no idea how this may (or may not impact weight loss) yet, but it may have some significance for diabetics.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited September 2016
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Exactly this.

    I'll add that anyone who is a distance runner knows that the more energy you are diverting to moving your body around the less energy will be available to digest the food sitting in your stomach. Many new runners discover this to horrible effect. Based on that, it seems to me that if you're lying in bed sleeping that leaves most of your body's energy for digestion and your argument is very logical.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    viren19890 wrote: »
    Hello,.

    As in during certain times of the day it's faster or slower?

    I got in an argument with someone that it doesn't matter, it'll be the same speed and they said it's slower at night so we should eat light food before going to bed.

    I was like, it's strange because I think it'll work better during night since most voluntary body movements cease during sleep, so it should work better ergo timings shouldn't matter.

    I'm sure truth is somewhere in the middle?

    Even if it is different, it wouldn't mean to eat light in the evening.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)
  • dreamsignals
    dreamsignals Posts: 39 Member
    Perhaps also worth mentioning is that the caloric deficit and surplus that we talk about so often is also arbitrary. We count daily calories, but measure fat loss at the end of the week, plan our cuts and bulks in months, and are proud of transformations from year to year.

    Our bodies are in a constant flux between deficit and surplus. Like @jemhh said, digestion takes a while and is basically happening all the time. Our bodies don't wait until you've used up all your proteins to pull some more out of the food, but they also don't do it immediately.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"
  • viren19890
    viren19890 Posts: 778 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"

    Lol that's the usual reason. If you go to bed full, it'll turn to fat and you'd get over weight. That was one of the reason used in the argument as well.

    I also thought like that until I learned about CICO since then anything that says CICO is garbage I usually get more attentive wondering maybe they are onto something lol.

    Bro science says eat before going to bed so you don't go catabolic and then another side says don't eat anything because it'll get you fat haha

  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,328 Member
    viren19890 wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"

    Lol that's the usual reason. If you go to bed full, it'll turn to fat and you'd get over weight. That was one of the reason used in the argument as well.

    I also thought like that until I learned about CICO since then anything that says CICO is garbage I usually get more attentive wondering maybe they are onto something lol.

    Bro science says eat before going to bed so you don't go catabolic and then another side says don't eat anything because it'll get you fat haha

    The body doesn't work that way which they obviously don't realize. Food takes 8 or more hours to digest which is a gradual process. Throughout the day peoples bodies go back and forth in how they use calories and at times even when a person is active, some of those calories will be stored as fat when the major part of a meal is digested, then used later in the day. For fat loss, it is a continual daily deficit over time so that the total amount of calories stored as fat is less than the total amount of calories needed from fat to provide energy.
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"

    I realize that just trying to see their logic of how undigested food in the gi tract turns to fat somewhere else in the body ;)
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    RMR is RMR. TDEE, which includes more than RMR, increases as your activity increases. When you first get out of bed in the morning, your TDEE up to that point is fairly low. By the end of the day it has risen in accordance with your activity level.

    As for eating lighter at night, pish posh, I say! I'll quote myself from earlier in the week:
    jemhh wrote: »
    People don't realize how long the digestion process takes. 6-8 hours from the time you ingest food until it leaves your small intestine. Then another 16+ hours in your large intestine, where the final nutrients are absorbed. After that, it's bathroom time. If we could only eat when we were awake for the whole process, we'd either starve or fall apart for lack of sleep.

    Though digestion and metabolism are not the same thing ;) I agree digestion doesn't stop at night. I have crohn's and when flaring I have to get up several times a night.

    Oh right! I have seen people write that they don't eat later at night because the food wouldn't have a chance to be used for anything and thus would turn into fat. It always makes me think that, if that were so, we'd be turning food into fat stores constantly no matter our calorie intake since there's always food in the digestive system (for most people.)

    If food was turned into fat before it went through our digestive tract it would be expelled/absorbed the same way as it would be if digestion was faster? A bunch of fat sitting in your digestive system doesn't make you fat.

    I think that when people say that they think that it becomes your own body fat, not fat sitting in your digestive system. Unless I've been misunderstanding their misunderstanding? That's entirely possible :) When I read that, I imagine that the person thinks s/he eats, goes to bed, and then his/her body is like "Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this sandwich doing here? What am I supposed to do with this while I'm sleeping? I know, I'll turn it into fat and stick it on my thighs!"

    I realize that just trying to see their logic of how undigested food in the gi tract turns to fat somewhere else in the body ;)

    I getcha now :star:
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    Logic and basic scientific knowledge is absent in so many weight loss myths
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    Logic and basic scientific knowledge is absent in so many weight loss myths

    Also, common sense!