DONT EAT AFTER 8PM!

wow, i thought that it did not matter what time you ate, but this article proves otherwise

http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201109/fat-fighting-foods/does-late-night-snacking-make-you-fat

this new study shows that subjects who ate more calories after 8pm were significantly heavier, even when controlling for other possible influences on weight like sleep duration. And a number of studies have shown that obese people eat more meals in the evening or night than lean people do.

YOUR thoughts and ideas?

This probably applies to people who have a problem with night-time snacking. Not necessarily people that eat after 8 and it's part of their regular daily intake. I'm willing to guess that the people that are heavier that do eat after 8pm are eating that meal/snack after they've already had dinner and are already over in their daily allotment of calories.
I think as long as we are at a deficit, we'll be alright. It leaves your body less time to use it before you are sedentary and you'll probably be holding in your stomach when you weigh the next morning but I'm guessing that overall, it would not make a difference as long as the food isn't "extra".

This is what i don't like... "But a recent study found that people who ate more calories after 8pm" more calories than what???? If you eat more calories of course you'd gain weight.

Also on one of the links, it says "this debate has been going on for years with mixed results." Depends what you feed the test subject. If you consume carbs before bed, it will lower growth hormone levels which are raised during sleep.

This article actually doesn't "prove" anything. :flowerforyou:

I wonder if they took into consideration the TYPE of food the night-eaters were eating...

Maybe people who choose to eat after 8pm are more likely to choose unhealthy foods, or calories that they don't need. If someone is eating a reasonable amount of "good" calories (as opposed to sugary garbage), it shouldn't matter what time they eat.

doesn't really matter i eat ice cream almost every night before i go to bed

Well yeah, but if you're counting that in your totals and compensating for that with the rest of your lifestyle then obviously it shouldn't matter... hence my original statement regarding "eating a reasonable amount," rather than just eating whatever they feel like in whatever quantity they want.

"Part of the reason for these findings is probably that late-night snackers tend to pick high-calorie options, and people who eat a larger number of calories in the evening end up eating a larger number of calories over the whole day."

...That's taken directly from the article... which was actually my exact point. LOL. So this article doesn't "prove" anything. This article isn't even a scientific study... it's just some person talking about some other studies and what was found, and what may/may not have caused those findings.

i'll have to read the study, but some arbitrary cutoff time where eating somehow becomes bad is ridiculous

I agree. From my own research, it seems that it depends on your body and your eating patterns. Naturally, you don't burn a ton of calories while you sleep, so theoretically if you eat before bed you don't have much time to burn it off. However, people have various bedtimes, so one straight cut off for EVERYONE is nonsense.

I think more important than the time you eat, is how much eat. It's also important to spread out your calories through the day-- you shouldn't just gorge yourself at night and only nibble on snacks in the morning/day time.

Also, many people don't have time to work out until night, and I think it is very important to have post-workout calories to refuel your body and recover your muscles. Sometimes you just have to listen to your own body and actually get to know what works for you and what doesn't.

I was thinking someone was going to say this right before i pushed "enter" on my otherr post. That saying I don't like at all. That's like saying "just because eating too much sodium has been linked to high blood pressure, doesn't mean salt is the cause." Okay that's absolutely true... but it's also true, "just because because eating salt has been linked to high blood pressure DOESNT MEAN it's not related too." That cause != correlation, is completely dismissed.

Well yeah, but basically the saying means that the correlation alone is not enough to determine a cause. A correlation indicates nothing more than a relationship. Whether one variable causes the other must then be determined by additional study.

Am I going to turn into a gremlin?

No a zombie
I ate last night at 8:01 and look at me now:sad:

I was thinking someone was going to say this right before i pushed "enter" on my otherr post. That saying I don't like at all. That's like saying "just because eating too much sodium has been linked to high blood pressure, doesn't mean salt is the cause." Okay that's absolutely true... but it's also true, "just because because eating salt has been linked to high blood pressure DOESNT MEAN it's not related too." That cause != correlation, is completely dismissed.

Well yeah, but basically the saying means that the correlation alone is not enough to determine a cause. A correlation indicates nothing more than a relationship. Whether one variable causes the other must then be determined by additional study.

I do understand what you're saying. I do agree with you. Everything is a relationship and anything can be said not to be the cause. I just finished my computer science major, and started my chemistry major this semester. We basically plot data, see results of things, and plot more data. Just what a scientist does. What i learned there are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO many errors in science it's crazy. For example, each person had to write data on the chaulk board. So we had like 30 samples. Then we heeded to make a trend line. Some people forgot to add "decimals" aka periods. Which completely threw the data off. My lab partner just sat back, and i'd record data, and i'd say "okay i measured this at .5 ml" he would just copy my answer. So we only have 1 sample out of test researches which would also lead to inaccurate results. Of course we're beginners in this field, but I can see how errors can be produced very easily.