Food timing, when to eat what
bertoroe
Posts: 12 Member
Does timing of food not matter? Do you eat certain foods at certain times of the day? I know it's an odd question but I notice I have a hard time pushing myself to eat certain foods at certain hours. For example eating eggs or pancakes at night when they seem like breakfast meals. Or veggies or steak in the morning. Am I just culturally conditioned? Lol.
It almost limits what I can eat through the day because I'm not sure I can find the idea of veggies appetizing in the mornings. Maybe high fats, high electrolytes and fiber in the morning and low at night? Any thoughts?
It almost limits what I can eat through the day because I'm not sure I can find the idea of veggies appetizing in the mornings. Maybe high fats, high electrolytes and fiber in the morning and low at night? Any thoughts?
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Replies
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get ready to start a World War III with your question ha ha, honestly it depends, it depends on if you are training for something or just talking about weight loss, I know that as a swimmer I have a sweet spot of when I like to have a meal prior to my swim to feel good to feel strong, if I eat too late I feel sluggish and it makes sense our bodies reallocate blood from our muscles to our intestines to help with the digestion so I feel that in the pool
when it comes to weight loss, it's one thing, and then you wait 10 years and its the exact opposite, but it really does NOT matter
so let me share what has worked for me and I recently lost over 30 pounds and am back in shape and loving it
when I wake up I try to eat as soon as I can, to break the fast I experienced while sleeping for the last 8 hours, ie I eat breakfast, especially egg whites I want to get some protein in me as quickly as possible so that my muscles which are just standing by waiting on material to start rebuilding themselves now have some material ie food ie protein to start building
speaking of protein I try to eat some with every meal I eat a lot about 50 grams with every meal, the rule of thumb is 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (we can argue this in a separate thread ha ha) but it works for me, if you over eat protein like I do, so what, I weigh 170 and I consume over 200 grams of protein, worst case scenario I have expensive poop, but my muscles always have enough protein to rebuild themselves
when I eat I think in terms of meals not specific food, meaning I want a well balanced meal at every meal, so always eat protein, fat, carbs, fiber, etc at every meal, that solves a lot of problems right there, food combinations effect digestion also, sometimes you want slow digestion, so mixing foods helps achieve that
I eat 4 times a day, my meals are protein (egg whites, chicken breast, white fish, tuna, etc.) a green vegetable (spinach, broccoli, asparagus) then single ingredient foods for carbs so oats, buckwheat, potato, etc.
carbs after dark is a myth, fast cardio is BS, but do what works for you
I want to eat my last meal as late in the day as possible, so I usually have a really big salad (pronounced FIBER) with extra spinach and some deli turkey meat often times no dressing but use avocado and lemon juice to make my own dressing with cracked black pepper
remember sleep is super important, the magic happens when we sleep, try to sleep at least 8 hours a day, the best sleep you can get is the sleep before midnight, so going to bet at 10 pm is better than going to bed at 11 pm type of thing
rest is important, you build muscles on rest days not in the gym, not when you are lifting weights, when you are working out you are breaking / destroying your muscles
hope this helps it's really all over the place6 -
Yeah, I've read it's marketing BS. It's crazy to think about, I am so used to thinking of things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, most dairies, cereals, and fruits as the only morning foods. So when I see people talk about eating salads in the morning, veggies, it's a little odd to stomach. But not having them available has been making my meal planning very difficult, because I couldn't figure out what to eat at what hour. I know, it's odd, but I'm still new to managing my nutrition and don't have a lot of cooking experience under my belt yet.B_Plus_Effort wrote: »hope this helps it's really all over the place
It did, thanks! I appreciate your story and your suggestions. Fiber at night makes sense, I'll try it out and see if it'll help me with night hunger.
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Yeah, I've read it's marketing BS. It's crazy to think about, I am so used to thinking of things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, most dairies, cereals, and fruits as the only morning foods. So when I see people talk about eating salads in the morning, veggies, it's a little odd to stomach. But not having them available has been making my meal planning very difficult, because I couldn't figure out what to eat at what hour. I know, it's odd, but I'm still new to managing my nutrition and don't have a lot of cooking experience under my belt yet.B_Plus_Effort wrote: »hope this helps it's really all over the place
It did, thanks! I appreciate your story and your suggestions. Fiber at night makes sense, I'll try it out and see if it'll help me with night hunger.
The point is if you, personally PREFER to eat certain foods at certain times, do that. It doesn't matter.
For all but elite athletes or people with specialized health conditions that impose constraints, it's about what works for you as an individual: That could be about foods that you find help you sleep, interefere with sleep; cause digestive upsets before bed or workouts vs. don't; help you feel energetic when you workout or don't; etc. Experiment, and adjust. It doesn't have to be perfect instantly.
Follow your individual preferences and perceptions, when it comes to food timing. Good basic overall nutrition is a good idea for pretty much everyone, but when you time the specific parts of that is individual. Eat your veggies vs. your proteins (or whatever) at whatever time pleases you. If you don't want to eat traditional breakfast foods at dinner or vice versa, don't. What other people do doesn't matter.7 -
as far as weight loss, your body does not care when you consume the calories.
what works for YOU personally, it can make a difference.
My sister tries to tell me I NEED to eat breakfast to lose weight.
Mind you, shes 300 pounds and also thought an ACV diet with 20/4 IF would make her lose 17 pounds in 3 days.
this nonsense is what I deal with on a daily basis. lord help me.
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There's no reason you HAVE to eat vegetables in the morning if you don't find them appealing then. I would say it seems pretty common that people will have a "warm up" period for their appetite where they don't like foods that are heavy or less familiar or spicy or whatever (and some of us will inhale spicy breakfast burritos happily at 6 AM).
If you feel like you WANT to get into eating vegetables earlier in the day, it seems like some people have success by combining them with more familiar breakfast foods, like a scramble with spinach or toast with avocado . . . stuff like that. Another option is fruit -- it has a lot of the same fiber and vitamins as their vegetable kin, but it can feel easier to eat melon or pineapple or a grapefruit earlier in the day.
Regardless of what you decide to do, our bodies are really good at maximizing nutrition from the foods we eat throughout the day, so even if you never eat a vegetable before noon or never eat a pancake in the evening, your body will be fine.
I'm pretty much in the camp that there's no real reason to fight food/meal preferences unless you find they're compromising your quality of life or your ability to meet your nutritional needs.5 -
Well, there is some logic to eating some carbs for breakfast to boost blood sugar. But, then, the argument works in reverse for people who DON'T want to boost blood sugar. (Thus the black coffee with butter thing.)
One person's elixir is another's poison, as they say.
Anyway, I like oatmeal with nuts and berries for breakfast, FWIW.
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Does timing of food not matter? Do you eat certain foods at certain times of the day? I know it's an odd question but I notice I have a hard time pushing myself to eat certain foods at certain hours. For example eating eggs or pancakes at night when they seem like breakfast meals. Or veggies or steak in the morning. Am I just culturally conditioned? Lol.
It almost limits what I can eat through the day because I'm not sure I can find the idea of veggies appetizing in the mornings. Maybe high fats, high electrolytes and fiber in the morning and low at night? Any thoughts?
For the average person, timing doesn't matter...when you eat vegetables, etc doesn't matter. If things were this complicated, we would have likely gone extinct long ago. Good nutrition matters...adequate calories matter.
I've never in my life had a salad for breakfast and I prefer "breakfast foods" for breakfast...usually toast and scrambled eggs or an omelet or oats with eggs, some fruit, etc. Sometimes I might put some spinach or mushrooms or something in my omelet...but for the most part I eat my veggies later in the day.
I will sometimes have leftovers from dinner for breakfast, but it's rare...I usually save those for lunch.4 -
It's cultural conditioning, but if you feel strongly about it no reason to try to get over it.
I like to eat veg with all meals, but don't have any cultural conditioning against something like a vegetable omelet.4 -
Objectively, meal timing doesn't matter, or too little to matter for most people. Subjectively, I find it much easier to control my appetite when skipping breakfast.
Eating steak, or meat in general, in the morning feels fundamentally wrong to me for some reason. YMMV. Raw veggies in the morning, however... I can dig it.0 -
As a side note, not eating after 6PM has eliminated my acid reflux/GERD. I no longer need to take meds for that. Not that it really matters in the big picture, but I weigh myself in the morning. So I like the 14+ hour fast/post-elimination consistency of weighing myself.0
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Yeah, I've read it's marketing BS. It's crazy to think about, I am so used to thinking of things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, most dairies, cereals, and fruits as the only morning foods. So when I see people talk about eating salads in the morning, veggies, it's a little odd to stomach. But not having them available has been making my meal planning very difficult, because I couldn't figure out what to eat at what hour. I know, it's odd, but I'm still new to managing my nutrition and don't have a lot of cooking experience under my belt yet.B_Plus_Effort wrote: »hope this helps it's really all over the place
It did, thanks! I appreciate your story and your suggestions. Fiber at night makes sense, I'll try it out and see if it'll help me with night hunger.
Intermittent fasting isn't market BS. it's a legit method of reducing insulin levels. And because insulin is inextricably linked to weight gain, weight loss is much easier.1 -
pauldalen1 wrote: »
Yeah, I've read it's marketing BS. It's crazy to think about, I am so used to thinking of things like eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, most dairies, cereals, and fruits as the only morning foods. So when I see people talk about eating salads in the morning, veggies, it's a little odd to stomach. But not having them available has been making my meal planning very difficult, because I couldn't figure out what to eat at what hour. I know, it's odd, but I'm still new to managing my nutrition and don't have a lot of cooking experience under my belt yet.B_Plus_Effort wrote: »hope this helps it's really all over the place
It did, thanks! I appreciate your story and your suggestions. Fiber at night makes sense, I'll try it out and see if it'll help me with night hunger.
Intermittent fasting isn't market BS. it's a legit method of reducing insulin levels. And because insulin is inextricably linked to weight gain, weight loss is much easier.
Many people find that their weight loss progresses perfectly well while eating throughout the day. While it's true that IF is a strategy that makes it easier for some people to meet their calorie goal and therefore manage their weight, a lot of the claims that have been made for IF just aren't supported by the evidence.6 -
I'm no expert, but from what I know, no, it doesn't matter when you eat what. A calorie is a calorie. However note that eating at different times may make you want to eat more. For example if I have breakfast super early I will end up craving a morning snack and will end up eating more than usual. Something to note.3
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I'm no expert, but from what I know, no, it doesn't matter when you eat what. A calorie is a calorie. However note that eating at different times may make you want to eat more. For example if I have breakfast super early I will end up craving a morning snack and will end up eating more than usual. Something to note.
Exactly this. I ate 3 meals for ages and didn't have an issue (but if adding snacking I would have eaten more). I'm currently experimenting with 2 meals (as I can eat more then and not feel a loss and skipping breakfast is no big thing for me). It's an easy way for me to reduce/control cals but does not suggest cals aren't what matter, of course they do.
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