Eating late

I've heard that you shouldn't eat after 7:30 or so at night (considering you have the normal daylight schedule).  I've tried that, but by the time I go to bed at 11:30 or so I'm starving.  If I stay within my calorie count what does it matter what time of day I eat?  If I just have something like boiled eggs, or a piece of pork chop, does it really matter?

As long as you stay within your count you may eat whatever your heart desires...

You will eventually get a lot of people that say "no, no", but you know???  I was often finishing up a bowl of cereal or a Lean Cuisine meal at 10.30-11.30 PM -- I lost 50 lbs doing that pretty regularly.  It was either that or have a deficit of well over 1000.

I dont know either, I was going to ask the same question.

For the past few nights I've been eating HEAVY dinners reallyyy late (ie. an hour before sleeping) and it meets my calories, but its MOST of my calories for the day right before I sleep!

Hmmmmmm..... any thoughts????

I'm not sure I'd eat the bulk of my calories an hour before bed -- but that's because I'd feel uncomfortable trying to sleep with a full stomach, and, because I can't imagine going through most of my day without eating.

If I'm eating 1500-1900 calories, at least 1000-1200 are generally gone before 4.00 pm -- and I'll eat probably another 200 in snacks before I come home from work and try to get my dinner and last snack in between 9.15-midnight

I have the same problem.

My job requires to me to work until around midnight - 1am most nights. and then i am waking up for the day around 11am noon as well. i go through alot of the day not eating very much, i duno why but im jut not hungry, and then after work is when i usually eat a big meal.. and then go to sleep sometimes directly after...

also have confusion what day i should log my foods in, if im eating after midnite do i put it into the next day since it technicly is, or do i put it on the day before, since really its the same day for me

Original Post by nicole_azland:

 

also have confusion what day i should log my foods in, if im eating after midnite do i put it into the next day since it technicly is, or do i put it on the day before, since really its the same day for me

 As a rule of thumb just count a new day after you have woken up. Since you seem to have long day which doesn't end well after midnight just start your log after you wake up, that way you avoid any confusion.  So in your case midnight does not mean that you count it for the next day but it's a continuation of the same day. Hope that helps!!!

Original Post by jingleduck:

by the time I go to bed at 11:30 or so I'm starving.

 

I think it is a personal choice.  I don't like to eat before bed either, but if I am starving, I am eating.  I think we get into more trouble trying to ignore the signals our body gives us.  There is a difference between hungry and starving.  I ignore hungry before bed, but I never ignore starving.  I will even go over my calorie allotment for starving because I trust it is a message that I screwed up somewhere.   I don't mess around when it comes to starving.  :)

Eating at night does not make you gain weight.

It is the food choices you make at night that do.

That old dont eat after a certain time myth is a joke.

I have read alot about it all sorts of place

I do not think it makes you gain weight. I lost weight fine eating around 11:00 for dinner.

CC says that you should be taking in your meals as you burn calories throughout the day-- For example, my daily burn rate at Sedentary is about 1650, while my eat meter goal is 1300. Theoretically, I should meet my calorie limit of 1300 at the time when my burn meter also meets 1300, leaving the rest of the day to burn the difference. 

The thing is, while I do have a normal sleep schedule, it's not a daytime one. I do sleep about 9 hours every night and wake up at about noon. This means that my last meal is taken anywhere from 9:00 to midnight, because that's my schedule. I always try to leave my last few hours specifically for digesting, and this is often when I fit in my exercise. So while I am eating late at night, I am leaving time for my body to process this food. It all depends on your schedule.

If you go to bed at 11, I don't see why you shouldn't move your dinner from 7:30 to 9, or even 9:30-- this way you'll stave off some of the urge to attack the snackeroonies. Or, separate your dinner into two smaller meals-- one at normal time, and one later, to keep you satisfied. 

I guess the theory behind not wanting to eat late at night is because sleep slows down the process of burning calories. ALTERNATELY, it has also been proven that your metabolism speeds up a little bit after eating, so it may give you problems falling asleep. I know they kind of contradict each other, but... take your pick. 

If all else fails, save room in your calorie allowance for a little something-something later on in the evening. These are guidelines, not laws! The most important part is to be happy.

What a coinkidink! It's damn near midnight and I just got done having dinner!

7:30 seems a bit extreme. I mean, I grew up old school urbanite. Cocktails aren't even over by 7:30.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it a myth, but your needs and lifestyle should be taken into account. Like, as opposed to a set time, I'd say you don't want to eat, say, two hours before going to bed, or if you do eat, try to eat light. Part of it is, as Harlequinny wrote, how you don't want to bog down your body if you have a slowed metabolism. Another part, I think, is one of those pieces of sideways advice.

There's the tendency (in U.S. culture at any rate) to have the big, showpiece meal as the last one in the day. While not directly preventing that, a "don't eat late" rule somewhat forces this to not be the case.

Contrary to what a lot of people have said in this thread, YES, it is bad for your diet to eat a lot late at night!!

This is not speculation, its scientific fact. A recent scientific study (I read about it a couple of weeks ago in the newspaper) has proven that you will lose a lot more weight if you eat a large breakfast, medium lunch, and small dinner...and this should all be eaten several hours before you go to bed.

This is because all the calories you consume at dinner will not be burned off. What do the majority of us do after dinner? Watch TV? Read a book? We do not burn off the energy/kilojoules/calories we are consuming in the large dinner. And when we don't BURN energy it gets stored as FAT!!

Its best to eat the most during the day when you actually need the food for energy. Before you eat a meal ask yourself, 'what will I be doing between now and my next meal?' If the answer is 'sleep', don't eat a lot.

If you get hungry in the few hours before you go to bed, which I do as well, eat a water based fruit like an apple. This way you're not consuming a lot of actual energy or food because a lot of it is water, but you're deceiving your body into believing you actually ARE, because the food is bulky.

I hope this helps!! 

 

 I do think it just depends on the person, but i would't recommend eating late. They say you shouldn't eat within 3 hours of sleeping because it's harder for your body to digest while it's sleeping because every organ is in resting mode. I notice if I eat late and go to bed I still feel disgustingly full in the morning. I cut myself off at 7pm and it works for me.

This is not speculation, its scientific fact.


There are "scientific facts" that go both ways on this subject.

Original Post by fish468:

Contrary to what a lot of people have said in this thread, YES, it is bad for your diet to eat a lot late at night!!

This is not speculation, its scientific fact. A recent scientific study (I read about it a couple of weeks ago in the newspaper) has proven that you will lose a lot more weight if you eat a large breakfast, medium lunch, and small dinner...and this should all be eaten several hours before you go to bed.

This is because all the calories you consume at dinner will not be burned off. What do the majority of us do after dinner? Watch TV? Read a book? We do not burn off the energy/kilojoules/calories we are consuming in the large dinner. And when we don't BURN energy it gets stored as FAT!!

Its best to eat the most during the day when you actually need the food for energy. Before you eat a meal ask yourself, 'what will I be doing between now and my next meal?' If the answer is 'sleep', don't eat a lot.

If you get hungry in the few hours before you go to bed, which I do as well, eat a water based fruit like an apple. This way you're not consuming a lot of actual energy or food because a lot of it is water, but you're deceiving your body into believing you actually ARE, because the food is bulky.

I hope this helps!!

 

source please

This is from WebMD:

The advice: Shut the kitchen down after 7 p.m. to prevent weight gain.

Why it's useless: After a long day at the office and a trip to the gym, you either eat dinner at 9:30 or starve.

The real deal: The no-food-right-before-bed rule was meant for the nighttime nosher who mindlessly wolfs down a bag of Oreos while watching CSI: Miami. If you get home long after dark, a late dinner is perfectly fine. A calorie is a calorie, no matter what time you eat it, according to Katie Clark, R.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of family health care nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. But do keep your evening meal light--along the lines of a chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and brown rice. Too much chow will keep you up at night: To break down all that food, your gut has to churn like a cement truck.

And the fact remains that many of us have continued to lose weight while consistently eating meals (not snacks) within an hour of bed.

well ive lost like 60 lbs living on not eating like 2 hours before i go to bed becuase if u go to sleep on a empty stomach...or even a lil hungry is good becuase u have all night to burn calories in your sleep n burn fat n it also wakes me up early to eat a breakfast...........i have a long day schedule till 12 midnight so i eat like an apple at like 11 or 1030 becuase i kno illl be giong to sleep at like 1 n waking up at like 10 so i hate eating less than 2 hours befoe sle0ep...............best time to be hungry is in ur sleep right?!?!?!?

I have a theory on this.  i get off work at 7:00 and usually eat around 8:30 or 9:00.  I have lost tons of weigh doing it that way for the last 8 months.  I think that you can eat when ever you want as long as you eat right and eat with in your limit.  but when you get closer to your goal weight, or start to level off i think that It would be a great idea to try and eat earlier so that you can burn those calories off while being awake.  You do burn more calories awake than asleep so it is reasonable to think that it would help your digestion as well.  So do what ever the hell you want and keep on losing but when it comes time to lose those last couple of pounds you will have learned enough on this site to know that you can eat earlier, or add a 4th and fifth meal to your day, or work out differently to get you through those last several pounds.  You may never need it but I like to have those things in my back pocket in case i need to re-power my rapid weight loss.  if I do everything all out then I have no where to turn to rejuvenate the weight loss.  But if I can eat more calories than you think and eat at all times of the day and even drink lots of alcohol on the weekends and still lose weight than i am the guy that knows exactly what to do when my weight loss slows down.

 

Good Luck

I don't think it matters.  I had this question earlier too, but I always eat more of my calories late and I have had no problems yet with losing weight.  So I think you need to eat when you are hungry, no matter what time it is.

Your body is going to burn the calories it's going to burn no matter when you consume calories, so why would it matter when you eat?  So "when we don't BURN energy it gets stored as FAT!!"?  Well, we're burning energy all the time, so you just have to not eat more calories than the calories burned in order to not gain weight.

The "large breakfast, medium lunch, small dinner" suggestion keeps you from starving all day because you're barely eating then pigging out at night.  Of course you're going to gain weight if you starve yourself all day and overcompensate at night.

I don't eat a heavy meal right before bed, but I do usually have a snack about an hour before - usually yogurt or maybe a bowl of oatmeal in the winter time  or veggies left over from dinner.  If I don't, I wake up starving in the morning and, well, fried eggs and pre-cooked bacon are too quick and easy to fix.  I don't need to wake up that hungry, so as far as I'm concerned, a light snack before bedtime is not a bad thing.

Ariel makes a good point - if you are going to be hungry, it may as well be while you are asleep.  Eat wisely during the day to avoid being overly hungry.  Don't waste a good meal by sleeping it off.