Disadvantages of having high calorie dinner?

I eat about 50% of my calories after 8PM. 10 PM even. I lose as expected.

And while I’m not certain the theory-I believe it’s somehow tied to the idea that our metabolism stops or something when we’re sleeping (it doesn’t-it does stop when we’re dead) and that there are mythical fat/calorie fairies that come and convert every calorie (particularly carbs) eaten after some arbitrary time of day (2/4/6/8 who do we appreciate? all seem to be common times given) directly into FAT! Or that our metabolism needs to be “jump started” in the morning like it’s a 40 year old rusted car in a barn.

That’s not how it works.

Fat loss/gain cycles continuously 24/7/365 depending on your precise energy needs and what kinds of fuel is needed and available. What matters is that over time, you’re consuming fewer calories than your body burns - because regardless of what is happening at any given specific time, eventually you will end up needing to use your fat to make up the energy difference.

The easiest way to eat fewer calories than you burn is to eat in a way that matches your preferences (for the types of food you enjoy, and keep you full, at the times that you are hungry). A lot of us in the thread tend to be hungry in the evenings or that’s just when our schedule allows us to eat. We are losing/maintaining/gaining as we expect to because it doesn’t matter when you eat.

If you make a drastic shift-like all of a sudden you eat 6 hours earlier or later than usual-you’ll probably see a little difference on the scale the next day as more (or less) food has digested than is normal for you. But that’s not an indication that eating early or late causes you to lose or gain weight. Only the almighty calorie calculation can do that.

Prady, after reading several of your posts, I just wanted to suggest that you're over thinking. You can ignore all the confusing rules, just hit your calorie goal.

Log accurately and consistently for 4-6 weeks. Use the notes box to record any times you got hungry but didn't have calories left, or days you had no energy. Note days you hit your cal goal easily, or even had cals left over and weren't hungry. After a few weeks, start looking back and see if you notice any patterns. We're you always hungry on days after you ate a big dinner? Were you hungry on days your carbs were high? You'll start to figure out which foods fill you up and what eating schedule works best for you.

Hitting your calorie goal is universal. The specifics of how you most easily get there can be different for everyone. Don't sweat the small stuff :drinker: