How late is too late? (Eating at night)

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  • lsapphire
    lsapphire Posts: 297 Member
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    Sometimes you have to. need to get adequate calories
  • lorenzoinlr
    lorenzoinlr Posts: 338 Member
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    I routinely eat an hour before bed in fact I'll probably do it tonight. Hasn't seemed to have been a problem.
  • love22step
    love22step Posts: 1,103 Member
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    I don't eat after I go to bed. No crumbs in my bed. I don't want to have to get up and brush my teeth again, either. Wait 'til morning and have breakfast.
  • Lift_hard_eat_big
    Lift_hard_eat_big Posts: 2,278 Member
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    no later than 7!

    You better be trollin' otherwise I will start a petition to have you banned
  • prettygirlhoward
    prettygirlhoward Posts: 338 Member
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    A nutritionist from Max Muscle told me that you can eat 1 minute before bed time, but to eat protein?
  • rc630
    rc630 Posts: 310 Member
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    It doesn't matter what time you eat; what is more important is your net calories for the day, or even more important, your net for the week.
    If timing of eating mattered that much, we would be centering our diets around time and not calories. This isn't so for a reason...
    The only reason to not eat late would be if it bothers your stomach, like the poster above with the acid reflux. But eating the same amount of food at 7 pm vs. 11 pm won't make a difference in fat loss.
  • irisheyez718
    irisheyez718 Posts: 677 Member
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    I eat my cup of ice cream almost every night, when I get off work at midnight, right before I go to bed. It hasn't done me any harm.
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    You should stop eating when you either:

    1) Run out of calories
    2) Fall asleep

    What you eat should be determined somewhat by your remaining macro needs. If it's 1 hour before bed and I still need 30g protein and 100g carbs I might eat the leftover shrimp fried rice, for example. But if for some reason I've got a few hundred cals to spare and I'm fat deficient, I'm grabbing some nuts (giggity) or peanut butter/etc.


    Ultimately it would be in most peoples best interest to not focus on acute things, and by that I mean things like trying to manipulate how much fat you gain during the next 2 hours, or whether or not you'll be burning off that piece of toast.

    Since you're presumably controlling your total intake of calories and macronutrients, the end result is that (for those eating in a deficit) fat oxidation will exceed fat storage. Even if, for some reason, you DO put on some fat in your sleep, you're just going to burn it back off by the very nature of you being in a deficit. It happens over time and trying to manipulate short term processes is silly.
  • DannyMussels
    DannyMussels Posts: 1,842 Member
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    Diet-wise I agree theres no such thing as too late. I often eat very little during the day and while I'm at work so I can have a big supper when I get home. (10pm)

    But lifewise, you may wanna rethink your schedule if you're up at 10pm-1am at night eating full meals for no real reason.

    Unless you work some crazy hours. Like a stripper.
  • spinqueen72
    spinqueen72 Posts: 406 Member
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    Your body does not know the difference between 7 a.m. or 7 p.m.
    A calorie is a calorie...whether it's the afternoon or 2 a.m.!
    If you're hungry, and it's allowable in your daily calories...go for it!
  • mznisaelaine
    mznisaelaine Posts: 2,262 Member
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    Its technically eating breakfast so you should be fine....12:30 am yea thats breakfast time and plus its the next day :flowerforyou:
  • wackedoutpet13
    wackedoutpet13 Posts: 72 Member
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    Don't eat right before bed. This is part of a documentary about sumo wrestlers and their weight gain. If you go to 5:30 in, you will see that eating right before you sleep will cause you to put on weight quickly.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSSeRp6Dtn0
  • tulip07
    tulip07 Posts: 167 Member
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    I am quite confused about this myself, but a very renowned yogi and naturopath in India preaches that it's better to eat your last meal 2 hrs before going to bed and it is best not to sleep with a full stomach. It is better to finish digesting the food before you sleep.

    The idea is that the human body renews/revives and repairs while sleeping. So digestion while sleeping (or the fact that the stomach is full) interferes with that process of repair. So he doesn't say it has anything to do with weight gain, but just for the normal/intended process of human bodily functions. He also preaches about the power of fasting when one is sick with, say, a fever. Again the same concept - human body has the power to heal itself provided we let it. Food or the process of digestion interferes or takes away some energy from the body when it is trying to focus on cleansing, repairing and healing. He says this is what animals do when they are sick. Anyway, seems to go with the popular belief "Feed a cold, starve a fever".

    Please take it with a grain of salt, I just wanted to give you another view point.

    ETA: This is only as a general rule. I am sure you can eat when you get home tonight and that should be fine. I do eat when I am hungry, sometimes that falls within an hour before going to bed :)
  • turbofire46
    turbofire46 Posts: 3 Member
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    You say that "for tonight" you won't get to eat until you get home at 12:30. If it's not all the time that you're getting home late, then go ahead and eat. I highly doubt the bowl of oatmeal you say you're probably going to eat is going to sabotage your 75 pound weightloss. By the way, congrats on that.
  • kimhwan92
    kimhwan92 Posts: 5 Member
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    It takes 24 to 72 hours for your body to fully digest the foods you intake.

    Which means, the time of the day won't matter.

    Just focus on meeting your micros and macros within the allowed calories.
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    Don't eat right before bed. This is part of a documentary about sumo wrestlers and their weight gain. If you go to 5:30 in, you will see that eating right before you sleep will cause you to put on weight quickly.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSSeRp6Dtn0

    From a quick search, I'm seeing that an average Sumo wrestler can eat up to 8000 calories per day (another site said 20,000, but I'm skeptical). So you think it's the eating at night part that's significant, or the fact that they're eating 2+ times their TDEE?
  • skierxjes
    skierxjes Posts: 938 Member
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    If you're eating in bed and fall asleep with food in your mouth/hand, it's too late.
  • cincymomof3
    cincymomof3 Posts: 329 Member
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    I know that the general rule is that it doesn't matter what time of day you eat, but...
    My schedule tonight only allows me to snack an hour or less before bed. I feel like this is too late in the evening. I mean, I can understand snacking at 10pm or 11, but by the time I get home it will be 12:30. Is this still okay?

    BTW I think my snack is going to be oatmeal, mmmm. Thoughts?

    Eat your snack and enjoy! I just ate an entire 400+ calories at midnight. :)
  • ShaeSweetie
    ShaeSweetie Posts: 156 Member
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    From what i hear, your not supposed to eat after 8. Something small i suppose it alright. Like fruit or a granola bar. Im not sure how much oatmeal is. Its supposed to be not after 8..but if i do eat at night i usually stay up a little later. The main problem is eating and then going straight to sleep..the food doesnt digest well then, it just sits in your tummy!
  • tonid76
    tonid76 Posts: 51
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    Its nearly 1230a here...I could totally use a snack right now. However, I'm not going to because I already closed out my food journal for the day. LOL I'm having breakfast burritos in the morning so I'll wait :) hehehe

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