Is it true that eating late at night is bad for weight loss?
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Replies
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Extremely rare that I have dinner before 6. Did not stop me losing weight1
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Cortisol levels fluctuate throughout a 24hr period, and higher cortisol leads to increased production of endogenous glucose and a propensity towards storing extra calories in the form of fat. Though I agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters- in reality, you would also want to be sure that the weight you lose is mainly in the form of fat (as opposed to protein).
Sounds beautiful, doesn't it. Very scientificky.
Can you enlighten me then , since you "agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters", where the missing calories are getting supplied from when you eat at night and where they are supplied from when you're not eating at night?
Cause the only place I know that can supply missing calories is your body.
And your body can either burn up some fat or some lean mass to do so.
So you must be saying that not eating at night is lean mass preserving!
Wow! That is BIG news.
There I thought that eating a mixture of protein and carbs is the best way to enhance or preserve lean mass, and you're saying that the best way is actually to NOT eat at all!
Oh my! All the bros with their post workouts....14 -
Nope I eat 2000-2300 of my calories after 9pm and have been doing it for years. I lost doing so and am maintaining doing so.1
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It's always late at night somewhere in the world whenever you eat.
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witcherkar wrote: »My weight loss doctor has me on a diet of having a protein shake for breakfast and dinner and a meal for lunch. He told me to have it for lunch and not dinner because you move around more during the day and are more likely to burn off some of the calories than later at night. Makes sense to me.
@witcherkar
I do hope you aren't paying good money for such poor advice?
It actually makes no sense at all. Why does it matter if you burn off calories you just ate, or ate yesterday, or weeks ago?
Please do think ahead to when you get to goal weight, building sustainable habits during your weight loss phase really does help the transition. Having two protein shakes instead of meals (they aren't designed as meal replacements anyway...) isn't, I assume, how you intend to eat for life?
Never trust anything a doctor says about nutrition unless they are specialized. They know less than most of the posters on here. We get 1 week of nutrition in medical school and basically all it says is "2000 diet, limit carbs, fat" which is wrong lol. I can't believe yours is specialized and still has no clue. There are too many doctors who aren't up to date with the literature and just say many myths that have perpetuated throughout society over the years because thats what they were once told years ago. We now know all of that isn't true.5 -
I think a lot of rubbish advice came about, because slimming clubs, slimming "experts" and the like, love to make rules and so justify their high fees. The latest I heard on TV was, never eat carbs after 6pm..... ??!!3
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Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »witcherkar wrote: »My weight loss doctor has me on a diet of having a protein shake for breakfast and dinner and a meal for lunch. He told me to have it for lunch and not dinner because you move around more during the day and are more likely to burn off some of the calories than later at night. Makes sense to me.
@witcherkar
I do hope you aren't paying good money for such poor advice?
It actually makes no sense at all. Why does it matter if you burn off calories you just ate, or ate yesterday, or weeks ago?
Please do think ahead to when you get to goal weight, building sustainable habits during your weight loss phase really does help the transition. Having two protein shakes instead of meals (they aren't designed as meal replacements anyway...) isn't, I assume, how you intend to eat for life?
Never trust anything a doctor says about nutrition unless they are specialized. They know less than most of the posters on here. We get 1 week of nutrition in medical school and basically all it says is "2000 diet, limit carbs, fat" which is wrong lol. I can't believe yours is specialized and still has no clue. There are too many doctors who aren't up to date with the literature and just say many myths that have perpetuated throughout society over the years because thats what they were once told years ago. We now know all of that isn't true.
He is a bariatric doctor and i also see his nutritionist. My insurance pays 100% lol. This diet is just for preop. Once i lose a certain amount of weight then after surgery i go to having 3 meals a day the healthy way.3 -
elizabethdzenitis wrote: »I've started eating dinner at like 10 pm cause ya girl is busy. so I'm just wondering if this is bad for someone who wants to lose weight. Whoops lol. I've always heard eating later than 6 is bad
Think about this...logically...like really think about whether or not that actually makes sense.
I'll give you a hint...millions of years of evolution did not leave us having to stop eating after some arbitrary time of day...4 -
Cortisol levels fluctuate throughout a 24hr period, and higher cortisol leads to increased production of endogenous glucose and a propensity towards storing extra calories in the form of fat. Though I agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters- in reality, you would also want to be sure that the weight you lose is mainly in the form of fat (as opposed to protein).
Sounds beautiful, doesn't it. Very scientificky.
Can you enlighten me then , since you "agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters", where the missing calories are getting supplied from when you eat at night and where they are supplied from when you're not eating at night?
Cause the only place I know that can supply missing calories is your body.
And your body can either burn up some fat or some lean mass to do so.
So you must be saying that not eating at night is lean mass preserving!
Wow! That is BIG news.
There I thought that eating a mixture of protein and carbs is the best way to enhance or preserve lean mass, and you're saying that the best way is actually to NOT eat at all!
Oh my! All the bros with their post workouts....
You misunderstand. The point being made was that calories consumed in the setting of elevated cortisol levels are more likely to be stored as fat as opposed to a more readily available form of stored energy.
Maintaining a calorie deficit leads to weight loss; but that weight loss can be in the form of either fat or muscle tissue. If you want to do more than simply lose weight (i.e. promote fat metabolism and preserve muscle mass), then you most definitely need to take into account the content AND timing of your meals/snacks.
As for trying to undermine my comment with the snotty "scientificky" retort.. seriously dude?
M.D. here, btw. I'll be more than happy to cite up to date studies from our literature if needed.22 -
If you fly to the other side of the world and/or into a different timezone you don't magically gain weight because of it.
Your body burns energy 24/7.6 -
Fat storage or depletion is a result of a continuous reversible thermodynamic process whose direction and rate (point of equilibrium) depends upon energy in/out of the body. The main point is that the process in continuous (always on), rather than discrete (occurring only in intervals). There is no set daily time after which the body decides that more of the food consumed must be stored as fat. The body keeps doing what it does 24/7.
If you count calories, meal timing doesnt matter. If you dont, meal timing might help reduce total intake.
8 -
Cortisol levels fluctuate throughout a 24hr period, and higher cortisol leads to increased production of endogenous glucose and a propensity towards storing extra calories in the form of fat. Though I agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters- in reality, you would also want to be sure that the weight you lose is mainly in the form of fat (as opposed to protein).
Sounds beautiful, doesn't it. Very scientificky.
Can you enlighten me then , since you "agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters", where the missing calories are getting supplied from when you eat at night and where they are supplied from when you're not eating at night?
Cause the only place I know that can supply missing calories is your body.
And your body can either burn up some fat or some lean mass to do so.
So you must be saying that not eating at night is lean mass preserving!
Wow! That is BIG news.
There I thought that eating a mixture of protein and carbs is the best way to enhance or preserve lean mass, and you're saying that the best way is actually to NOT eat at all!
Oh my! All the bros with their post workouts....
You misunderstand. The point being made was that calories consumed in the setting of elevated cortisol levels are more likely to be stored as fat as opposed to a more readily available form of stored energy.
Maintaining a calorie deficit leads to weight loss; but that weight loss can be in the form of either fat or muscle tissue. If you want to do more than simply lose weight (i.e. promote fat metabolism and preserve muscle mass), then you most definitely need to take into account the content AND timing of your meals/snacks.
As for trying to undermine my comment with the snotty "scientificky" retort.. seriously dude?
M.D. here, btw. I'll be more than happy to cite up to date studies from our literature if needed.
Fat IS your readily available form of stored energy. 2/3 of your energy needs at rest are met by it.6 -
No. I've lost 70 pounds eating most of my calories in the middle of the night because I work the night shift.8
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Can you cite the studies, please?6
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The point being made was that calories consumed in the setting of elevated cortisol levels are more likely to be stored as fat as opposed to a more readily available form of stored energy.
Maintaining a calorie deficit leads to weight loss; but that weight loss can be in the form of either fat or muscle tissue. If you want to do more than simply lose weight (i.e. promote fat metabolism and preserve muscle mass), then you most definitely need to take into account the content AND timing of your meals/snacks.
[....] I'll be more than happy to cite up to date studies from our literature if needed.
How are you measuring muscle tissue change, btw? Most studies I've seen have a hard enough time figuring out fat vs lean mass and good luck on figuring out muscle tissue... but I digress.
(some) things that may determine fat vs lean mass lost in a deficit:
-- achieving and adhering to a caloric deficit in the first place
-- degree of obesity, i.e. relative availability of fat mass vs lean mass
-- consumption of protein
-- size of deficit
-- strength training
-- timing of food in relation to exercise
-- amount of sleep/rest
-- timing of food in relation to waking up and going to bed
Would love to see some studies that discuss the relative impact of all of these in regards to achieving fat loss and the physique we want.6 -
Very enlightening discussion!0
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In addition to the factors others have mentioned, I believe part of the “don’t eat late at night” myth may come from people who weigh themselves at the same time every morning but only sometimes eat late at night. If your last food is at 8 pm, then you sleep, use the restroom, and weigh yourself at 8 am, you’ll probably weigh less than if your last food is at 2 am and you weigh yourself at 8 am. This isn’t because of additional fat gained by eating late at night, but because you’ve got more food still moving through your digestive system. I occasionally have people over for gaming and will snack well into the AM - I’ve learned not to bother weighing myself the next morning because it’s always a pound or three high.9
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Cortisol levels fluctuate throughout a 24hr period, and higher cortisol leads to increased production of endogenous glucose and a propensity towards storing extra calories in the form of fat. Though I agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters- in reality, you would also want to be sure that the weight you lose is mainly in the form of fat (as opposed to protein).
Sounds beautiful, doesn't it. Very scientificky.
Can you enlighten me then , since you "agree that for weight loss, calorie count is all that matters", where the missing calories are getting supplied from when you eat at night and where they are supplied from when you're not eating at night?
Cause the only place I know that can supply missing calories is your body.
And your body can either burn up some fat or some lean mass to do so.
So you must be saying that not eating at night is lean mass preserving!
Wow! That is BIG news.
There I thought that eating a mixture of protein and carbs is the best way to enhance or preserve lean mass, and you're saying that the best way is actually to NOT eat at all!
Oh my! All the bros with their post workouts....
You misunderstand. The point being made was that calories consumed in the setting of elevated cortisol levels are more likely to be stored as fat as opposed to a more readily available form of stored energy.
Maintaining a calorie deficit leads to weight loss; but that weight loss can be in the form of either fat or muscle tissue. If you want to do more than simply lose weight (i.e. promote fat metabolism and preserve muscle mass), then you most definitely need to take into account the content AND timing of your meals/snacks.
As for trying to undermine my comment with the snotty "scientificky" retort.. seriously dude?
M.D. here, btw. I'll be more than happy to cite up to date studies from our literature if needed.
Woah. An MD. No MD ever gave bad weight loss advice, based on the number of people on MFP being put on 800-1000 calorie diets for no reason by their doctor, given pills that make them poop an oil slick by their doctor, sold what basically amounts to MLM garbage with a medical front, etc.13
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