Eating Late.... Problem or not?

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  • beautyreaps
    beautyreaps Posts: 151
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    Eating late is not a problem. As mentioned above, your body cannot tell time. So long as you stay within your caloric goals, then you should be fine. Your body DOES burn calories as you sleep (Otherwise you'd be dead, haha. The body needs calories to operate, even at rest).
  • KristinC4
    KristinC4 Posts: 81
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    The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

    ^ This is entirely false, no offense.

    Exactly.

    So with this BS, if I go to Washington from Iowa, then I should stop eating at 5pm over there since my body knows what time it is and time zone?
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

    Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
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    You can eat every one of your calories and then go to bed and you will still lose weight if you are a calorie deficit.

    You do not have to eat your meals spaced out, you can skip meals, you can **gasp** go under 1000 calories occasionally, you can go to McDonalds every day, it doesn't matter. A deficit is a deficit.
  • Cr8tive_Ingenuity
    Cr8tive_Ingenuity Posts: 181
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    its calories in vs calories out..not the time of day.on the other hand if you suffer from a sleeping disorder or GERD than its probably not a good idea to eat before bed..otherwise it makes no difference. The reason why people might not eat late at night is if you weigh yourself in the morning and your last meal was at 8pm and a small snack at 10 and you weigh yourself at 8am after you do your number 2, you would probably weigh less than if you eaten a half of pizza at 12am and weight yourself at 8am
  • brittanyjeanxo
    brittanyjeanxo Posts: 1,831 Member
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    Good for you on your loss! Yes, the body burns calories while you sleep, but at a far slower rate. A large meal late at night is definitely not a good idea. However, if you have something light, a vegetable soup, salad or fruit later in the evening to stave off hunger, it's no big deal.

    This :) As a student in the medical assisting field, I can tell you that the body most definitely burns calories while you're asleep! I try to stick to the 3 hour rule. No eating 3 hours before bed. Why? Because, for me, if I have something in that time period, I wake up bloated. Your metabolism doesn't have a magical switch where it just shuts itself off as soon as your head hits the pillow, but everything in your body does go at a much lower rate. You heart slows, your BP gets lower, and you digest things much, much slower. That's why I find it better to give myself time to digest a bit of whatever I've eaten before I fall asleep. Hope I've helped! *ETA: and that's just me. I weigh in when I wake up, so if you don't, I say eat whenever :)
  • extremewinner
    extremewinner Posts: 98 Member
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    Your body cant tell time but it has its own pace and usually if you eat during the day regularly then by 7 you should stop. Its logic. By 7pm you should be done your 3 to 5 portions anyway so eating healthy but in the wrong proportions affects you negatively.

    I can see reason in both.
  • sandhillcrane
    sandhillcrane Posts: 301
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    I eat right until bed time most days. Not much but I snack into the evening. NO PROBEM!! AND....I am 55 so I say 'baloney' to the no eating after dinner. I am down 25 pounds. Good luck! :glasses:
  • extremewinner
    extremewinner Posts: 98 Member
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    The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

    Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

    If your idea of being 'healthy' is to just maintain calorie counts then yes.
  • brittanyjeanxo
    brittanyjeanxo Posts: 1,831 Member
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    Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

    I'd like to see proof of this, please. Do you have an article you could link me to?
  • Jessicaruby
    Jessicaruby Posts: 881 Member
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    Eating late is a problem. Anything after 7 or 8 pm wont be processed the same. Unless you have reversed schedule where you work in the night and sleep in the morning. If you switch between working day and nights then thats a toughy but biologically zour bodys made to process efficiently in the day.

    ^ This is entirely false, no offense.


    :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

    Exactly.

    So with this BS, if I go to Washington from Iowa, then I should stop eating at 5pm over there since my body knows what time it is and time zone?
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    Your body cant tell time but it has its own pace and usually if you eat during the day regularly then by 7 you should stop. Its logic. By 7pm you should be done your 3 to 5 portions anyway so eating healthy but in the wrong proportions affects you negatively.

    I can see reason in both.

    No, It is incorrect.
    It does not matter at all. What does matter is a daily calorie deficit. So that fat oxidation exceeds fat storage.
    Your body never stops working.
  • minnesota_deere
    minnesota_deere Posts: 232 Member
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    Hi there, I recently started up MFP on January 1st and have lost 15, (yes 1-5) pounds so far. I love it but i have a few questions as far as dieting goes. I was told by some people that eating late is the biggest source of weight gain because of the fact that you're metabolism shuts down once you go to sleep. But recently, I was told by a friend that it's a myth and the human body will still burn calories while sleeping. For the past 3 weeks, i haven't been eating past 8PM (CT) and let me tell you as a college student, that's not easy. But I've obviously seen some results, so I'd hate to change my habits so far. Any ideas or thoughts?
    I have found out the last 2 days i eat dinner at 7:30-8:30pm it seems to keep me from looking for a snack before i go to sleep, it works for me, it never even concerned me about getting fat while i sleep, my daily calorie intake is balanced. again this works for me.
  • SergeantSunshine_reused
    SergeantSunshine_reused Posts: 5,382 Member
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    The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

    Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

    If your idea of being 'healthy' is to just maintain calorie counts then yes.

    My idea of healthy is hitting macronutrients and micronutrients. And not spreading false information. You can encourage people to eat healthy which is obviously a good idea, but saying that your weight would change a with healthy vs not food choice is spreading/creating more myths. Yay for knowledge!
  • teagin2002
    teagin2002 Posts: 1,901 Member
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    If you want to eat your entire days calories right before bed, it makes no difference.

    Meal timing is irrelevant. The reason late night eating gets a bad rep is because people tend to eat their daily allotment of cals in the daytime, AND THEN eat more late at night. They blame the late night eating for the weight gain, when they have simply just created a calorie excess.
    This.
    These^^^^

    This ^^^ I eat at night when I am hungry, I have even woken up hungry on some days and ate something, most of the time I am not though.
    My hubby doesn't eat after 7 or 8pm but that's because of heart burn. Nutrition is nutrition regardless of the time of day :)
  • Alexdur85
    Alexdur85 Posts: 255 Member
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    I didn't read through all the posts so sorry if I'm a repeat

    It doesn't matter the time of day.. cals in vs cals out. You might weight a bit more in the morning if you have a huge meal at bed because your stomach is still be disgesting the food or it has a higher stodium content so you retain water. I think the don't eat late myth is in place beause people tend to snack alot at night while they are at home and bored and don't aleways make the right choices.
  • babyjett1
    babyjett1 Posts: 3
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    Most of what you eat goes to just running your body and your body is running 24/7. I always leave a couple of hundred calories for a late late snack so I won't wake up hungry in the middle of the night. A yogurt or a cup of cocoa will knock me right out until morning. It's hard to study if your stomach is rumbling.
  • brittanyjeanxo
    brittanyjeanxo Posts: 1,831 Member
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    Is this making anyone else hungry? No? Just me then?


    I'mma go have a snack. >:]
  • teagin2002
    teagin2002 Posts: 1,901 Member
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    The time you eat does not matter; it's what you are eating that makes all the difference. Most people crave junk food at night and don't make the smartest choices during this time. If the choices you make at night are healthy then you should not gain weight. Congrats on your weight loss so far and good luck in the future!

    Doesn't matter what you eat at night either. If I ate ice cream every night before bed and still hit my calorie goal for the day I would not gain an ounce

    If your idea of being 'healthy' is to just maintain calorie counts then yes.

    My idea of healthy is hitting macronutrients and micronutrients. And not spreading false information. You can encourage people to eat healthy which is obviously a good idea, but saying that your weight would change a with healthy vs not food choice is spreading/creating more myths. Yay for knowledge!

    I agree to a point, when we are eating at a deficit it is more difficult to get all those vitamin minerals amino acids etc.... so if we choose to eat processed foods, most are nutrient depleted, then we wont have enough calories to eat the nutrition we actually need for the day. It is ok to do it every once in a while or in moderation, but all the time with a calori deficit and the body will start to suffer. :flowerforyou:

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