What and when to eat?

I promise you nothing bad happens if you eat at night as long as you're staying within your calorie limit. Dinner is the last thing I do before I go to bed most nights (okay, I DO brush my teeth after dinner, so I guess it's not the very last thing, lol.). I've eaten this way for probably 10 years or more. I've eaten this way through weight loss and maintenance. It's had absolutely no effect on my weight in any of these situations. The caveat is that I eat a planned meal, just later in the evening. I don't graze or eat all the things because I'm starving at the end of the day.

I'd also point out that if people could store fat by eating randomly, no one would ever starve to death, right? They'd just keep storing fat whenever they got some food and be fine. We know that's sadly not the case in many parts of the world. I'd worry less about whether your schedule is affecting your weight and focus on making an eating plan that works around your schedule.

I agree that "eat within a sensible calorie goal, no matter time of day" can work. I eat from shortly after getting up in the AM to nearly bedtime (occasionally even in bed, but yes I do brush my teeth after!). I lost weight fine (50 some pounds), maintain weight fine (around 8 years at a healthy weight after around 30 previously of overweight/obesity).

Calories matter, Timing of eating doesn't matter (unless it helps you be full and happy on the appropriate calories).

I was told that I don’t have my body on a food schedule so it doesn’t know when my next meal is going to be and in return it’s storing fat. I’m not sure how true that is . . . .

No. Not how it works. Food schedule may matter in the sense that we tend to get cravings/appetite at times and in situations where we're accustomed to eating, but those habits can be retrained. In that sense, maybe not having consistent habits would be a benefit: Fewer habit-based appetite triggers!

Bodies store fat when we eat more calories than we burn. Bodies burn body fat when we eat fewer calories than we burn. It's that simple, at the foundation. (How to eat fewer calories and be happy is where the challenges come in!)

Our bodies don't know the difference between "a diet" and "famine". Our bodies aren't going to store fat when we've eaten below needs, and there are more important biological functions to fuel.

If eating late interferes with your sleep quality/quantity, or causes heartburn in bed, or something like that, then you might need to figure out how not to need to eat late. If it doesn't have any negative effects like that, it's fine to eat late, from a weight management perspective.

Best wishes!

I'm retired. I can eat anytime I like. I like to eat late at night. I've lost about 50 pounds in the last year. Not a muscle in sight--that's another story.

perryc05 wrote: »

I worked as a chef for 18 years in Australia. It's probably the worst job for distorting the body's natural rhythms and also messes with your desires to eat as your senses are saturated for long hours by food smells. You also have to do a lot tasting of unusually rich foods that can mess with natural appetite queues too.
Popular TV and film mythology would have us believe that chefs all sit down for dinner before service and this does happen in some places but is in the main not true and chefs works many hours often without breaks, tend to be drawn to drugs like amphetamines and other stimulants like coffee and run for years with very little sleep. Fast food choices are common too. You'll find most chefs have some sort of favourite junk food item that they are fond of.

I guess the only thing I can say is try to eat as best as you can on any days off you have.

I love cooking at home and making food for friends and coworkers, but doing it professionally would suck all the joy out of it.

Plus, I've watched "The Bear"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBmkI4jlaIo&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesTV