Eating cutoff times
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PrettyWhenSheSmiles
Posts: 8 Member
The last primary care physician I saw a year ago recommended that I not eat past 6pm. I know of course eating just before bed is definitely not recommended, but I don’t want to be hungry either.
Has this guideline ever worked for anyone? How did you maintain it and still feel satisfied at the end of the day? Thanks.
Has this guideline ever worked for anyone? How did you maintain it and still feel satisfied at the end of the day? Thanks.
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Replies
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Why is not eating before bed not recommended? Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference. Dinner is usually the last thing I do before I go to bed and it's never caused a problem for weight loss or maintenance. Between work and day camp runs, I can't even walk through the door by 6, much less get something ordered, never mind delivered and eaten. I honestly don't know how people work outside the home and manage dinner by 6. I'd probably wake up wanting to eat an elephant if I ate that early!7
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Why did they give you that advice?
Was it a suggestion to help you lose weight? If so, the key takeaway is calories in calories out, and losing a late night snack or dessert is an easy way to save a bunch of unnecessary calories. Whether you finish eating by 6pm or 8pm or whatever is irrelevant though.
If they were trying to suggest intermittent fasting, e.g. 16/8 is popular (fast for 16 hours, eat during 8 hours), that's another method of caloric restriction, assuming you aren't binging during those 8 hours. Or depending on your schedule maybe it could be 14/10 or whatever.4 -
The way the doctor put it is that eating immediately before bed was going to make the calories stick to me. I think her telling me not to eat past 6pm was her way of broaching the weight topic without offending me.0
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Right, so the doc is saying you need to lose calories, and late night calories are an easy thing to lose, or at least substitute for a healthier option. That sounds easier for the doc than getting into a whole big topic about diet, CICO, etc.2
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Yeah, I don’t mind honesty at all if it’s tactful. I know I’m overweight.0
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Yeah, I'm not sure people really know what being hungry is really like, and not eating for a few hours doesn't really qualify. It's a mental game for sure. Saying that, not eating at night is a good strategy if someone is prone to grazing on snacks and it's something that I incorporated years ago and while sometimes it's hard to avoid, mostly for social reasons, it's very effective and is good training to support the commitment to adapt a lifestyle change and keeps the journey going in the right direction. Good luck.2
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These days I don't eat after dinner, dinner for me is usually done by 7:30.
It means I'm not mindlessly eating stuff for the sake of it. It seems that my digestion prefers it, and means that there is at least 12 hours until breakfast.
There's no magic though, just a habit that works well for me. Might be worth giving it a try for a few weeks to see how you get on. Probably from a later time though, no clue how anyone has something on the table by 6.2 -
Retroguy2000 wrote: »Right, so the doc is saying you need to lose calories, and late night calories are an easy thing to lose, or at least substitute for a healthier option. That sounds easier for the doc than getting into a whole big topic about diet, CICO, etc.
^^This.
I know when I was overweight I ate mindlessly all the time. I don't need to eat after dinner, I just did it out of habit and because the food was there.
Losing weight is all about finding personal life strategies that help to cut back on eating, whatever those strategies might be. We know most of them, keeping reading and posting here and you may find many that help you.
I started with logging all my food here. That in itself was a mind-opening experience.
Welcome to the site. Losing weight changed my life. I hope you find the same.3 -
I do fasted cardio first thing in the morning. If I have nothing to eat after 6pm I ended up dragging my butt the next morning.2
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Like many others here, I just needed to break the habit of night snacking. I was too fond of making a half ham sandwich and downing a full glass of milk when I’d have insomnia. I don’t get heartburn at night anymore either.
Sometimes if I have calories to spare I’ll eat something small and protein or fiber rich, depending on what I need that day. Yogurt or a small bowl of raisin bran do the trick.
Once I click the complete button, I’m done.2 -
Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference.
This isn't true. The science clearly supports what is commonly called 'intermittent fasting'. Basically, the premise is that the longer you go without introducing glucose into your bloodstream via eating, the more time the body (via the liver) has to convert stored fat (glycogen) into glucose.
And it isn't just a turn on / turn off kind of thing. The more practice your body has at doing it, the more efficient it becomes at burning stored fat for energy.
This is one of the pillars of weight loss after bariatric surgery...HOW MUCH you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHEN you eat.
You can do intermittent fasting and yet still eat after 6PM, it depends on your fasting window.
And you can not do intermittent fasting, eat after 6PM and still lose weight.
I lost more than 70lbs eating a large part of my calories after 6PM.
For some of that weight loss, I did mild intermittent fasting (from 10PM till noon) and some of that weight loss not doing intermittent fasting at all (latest snack at 10PM, breakfast at 8-9AM. No difference in weight loss between those two periods.8 -
Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference.
This isn't true. The science clearly supports what is commonly called 'intermittent fasting'. Basically, the premise is that the longer you go without introducing glucose into your bloodstream via eating, the more time the body (via the liver) has to convert stored fat (glycogen) into glucose.
And it isn't just a turn on / turn off kind of thing. The more practice your body has at doing it, the more efficient it becomes at burning stored fat for energy.
This is one of the pillars of weight loss after bariatric surgery...HOW MUCH you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHEN you eat.
Yeeeeeah, a quick google search shows that intermittent fasting is not a thing to do after bariatric surgery.
And no mention of how late you can or can't eat.
OP, I lost most of my weight eating a huge portion of my daily calories right before bed. I tried to eat lightly during the day and it was usually something protein related.
Eat when you want. Just not how much you want. 😁9 -
Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference.
This isn't true. The science clearly supports what is commonly called 'intermittent fasting'. Basically, the premise is that the longer you go without introducing glucose into your bloodstream via eating, the more time the body (via the liver) has to convert stored fat (glycogen) into glucose.
And it isn't just a turn on / turn off kind of thing. The more practice your body has at doing it, the more efficient it becomes at burning stored fat for energy.
This is one of the pillars of weight loss after bariatric surgery...HOW MUCH you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHEN you eat.
No, the science does not.
I have maintained a 50+ pound weight loss for over 3 years and eat half or more of my daily calories between 5 and 9 in the evening.
As for IF, there are a lot of people who can't do because of BG issues - my wife being one of them.
I personally prefer not eating in the morning so I regularly do IF so I am not against IF. I am against the nonesense that IF is a panacena when it comes to weight loss.8 -
Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference.
This isn't true. The science clearly supports what is commonly called 'intermittent fasting'. Basically, the premise is that the longer you go without introducing glucose into your bloodstream via eating, the more time the body (via the liver) has to convert stored fat (glycogen) into glucose.
And it isn't just a turn on / turn off kind of thing. The more practice your body has at doing it, the more efficient it becomes at burning stored fat for energy.
This is one of the pillars of weight loss after bariatric surgery...HOW MUCH you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHEN you eat.
Who had bariatric surgery? The OP didn’t mention anything about bariatric surgery and it’s certainly not something I know anything about. Why is that even relevant? And I’ve lost sixty pounds that I’ve maintained for almost 8 years now eating at all hours of the day and night. Timing made not the tiniest difference to my weight.
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Unless you get reflux or have problems sleeping, it doesn't make any difference.
This isn't true. The science clearly supports what is commonly called 'intermittent fasting'. Basically, the premise is that the longer you go without introducing glucose into your bloodstream via eating, the more time the body (via the liver) has to convert stored fat (glycogen) into glucose.
And it isn't just a turn on / turn off kind of thing. The more practice your body has at doing it, the more efficient it becomes at burning stored fat for energy.
This is one of the pillars of weight loss after bariatric surgery...HOW MUCH you eat, WHAT you eat, and WHEN you eat.
The science doesn't clearly support that. It's pretty mixed, still - at best - in my reading. There may be benefits in fasting, dunno. It's certainly not a guaranteed route, or the only route, to weight loss.
Yes, the science as cited by those making money on books, programs, websites that advocate fasting . . . yup, their cherry picked version clearly supports the things that enrich them. (Call me cynical.)
If we're in a calorie deficit overall, sooner or later our body will utilize stored fat for energy. (If we try to lose too fast, it may also utilize more than a minimum of lean mass in addition to fat loss . . . but that's more about the intersection of body fat levels, loss rate, protein intake, and exercise.)
I ate from shortly after I got up in the morning until shortly before bed (occasionally even in bed) when losing weight from obese to a healthy weight . . . while menopausal, severely hypothyroid (properly medicated), and pretty darned old (59-60), besides . . . and have maintained a healthy weight for about 7 years since The whole time, I've eaten more calories than MFP predicts I need. Go figure.
Intermittent fasting is a fine strategy, for those it suits. It's not magical. Calorie balance is primary when it comes to fat loss, and there's ample evidence and expert opinion to support that.7 -
My son and his family eat dinner between 5 and 5:30 - he works from 8 am to 4 pm, gets home from work about 4:30, either his wife has prepared something or they heat something prepared in advance.
Works for them.
Wouldnt work for me, my husband and I rarely eat before 7 and sometimes not till 9 pm
IF isnt for me, I am better eating smallish amounts more regularly - and I successfully lost and maintained doing so.
I have no objections to IF or people posting that it works for them or even offering it as a suggestion to others.
I do object to it being given false scientific credibility as some sort of 'must do' or universal best way.6 -
I think Time Restricted Eating or feeding (TRE/TRF) is a little misunderstood. It has nothing to do with weight loss or dieting. Losing weight is about CICO, that's the bottom line. You can lose weight even if you eat every 4 hours 24 hours a day but still is less than your body requires.
I agree that there's many factions that use terms of IF to sell product, diet plans, supplements etc. Lets face it, with the vast majority of people overweight and obese it's definitely fertile ground and people like a good story and will definitely part with their cash for a quick result. imo. cheers2 -
PrettyWhenSheSmiles wrote: »The last primary care physician I saw a year ago recommended that I not eat past 6pm. I know of course eating just before bed is definitely not recommended, but I don’t want to be hungry either.
Has this guideline ever worked for anyone? How did you maintain it and still feel satisfied at the end of the day? Thanks.
By and large, "cut-offs" and other meal timing strategies in terms of weight loss are simply strategic ways of controlling one's calorie intake by only allowing one's self to eat within a specified period of time. For example, if you are able to eat an early dinner and be done by 6 PM and you don't consume calories after that and you are perhaps prone to snacking and whatnot later in the evening, you're likely to lop off a good chunk of calories with that cut-off.
I've heard the nothing after 6 PM thing for as long as I can remember, going all the way back to my mom dieting when I was a kid. Honestly, I don't think it's particularly practical for many, if not most people unless they're retired or work non-standard schedules. Outside of some really slow times of year, I'm maybe just getting home right around 6PM and we are a dual income family so there's nobody home getting dinner on the table before 6PM. Not to mention, soccer practices, football practices, basketball practices, kids jazz band concerts, etc. Our kids eat earlier, but my wife and I typically sit down to dinner around 8PM.5 -
I think having a cut off time for eating can work for some but maybe not everyone. I understand your feelings that maybe that was a way for your Dr. to address the issue without addressing the issues. I honestly think doctors know what conversations we are ready for ones we are not. Only you know your eating and activity habits. I did a month of intermittent fasting ending my eating at 7:00pm due to my schedule and it did end the evening snacking and definitely helped my sleeping. But overall the IF did not work for me and my schedule. I will revisit the end of the day meal again and hopefully that will address my night snacking issues.0
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