Interesting report... Eat late or not?

I thought this was interesting, and decided to share it...

http://health.msn.com/weight-loss/articlepage .aspx?cp-documentid=100199674&GT1=31036

Thanks for posting that. There a lot of people on here who say that your body has no idea what time it is so eating right before bed if you have to get your calories in is fine. I totally disagree.

"Since the body slows down in the evening, calories consumed at night may be more likely to be stored rather than used. Not only is a person less active, but all cells operate according to circadian rhythms, or fluctuations in their patterns of activity throughout a 24-hour period. Body processes—such as gut motility in digestion or the absorption of nutrients from food—also seem to operate on a kind of body clock showing decreased activity at night."

If I snack at all at night the scale does not budge for me even if I have a deficit of 500- 1000 calories! It might sound strange but it's true. My first real weight loss happened when I followed Bob Greene's "Get with the program" (111 lbs lost over the course of a year and a half!) and one of the major rules on that program is NO EATING after 6 p.m. As soon as I resumed night time snacking (2 years later) it started a total train wreck of weight gain which I ignored and helped me put 55 pounds of weight back on. I'm trying something new here with calorie counting this time but since I started here in January I can certainly say that there has been a direct correlation between days I have chosen to save some calories for night time snacks and days I have not showed a loss of weight despite a good size deficit.

I'm just saying, personally, if I go to bed with a little rumblin' in the tummy, I know that my body has run out of fuel and will burn fat stores throughout the night. The proof is the number on the scale.

I personally think that time does not matter for my body and losing weight.  I never pay attention to what the clock says and eat whenever I want (as long as I have calories left to consume).  I have lost 31 pounds since January, so I think I'm doing ok  

I also think it's different for everyone and what you really need to do is listen to your body, and try new things out - trial and error is the way to go (perferrably with less error!).

I have always eaten late at night, like before dieting and during.  I haven't had a problem losing weight at all.  I got down to a healthy weight (it was 5 above my goal but my goal may have been a little unrealistic due to my body type and build) so I decided to keep it there.  When I went into maintenance I had a lot of trouble increasing my calories during the day so I found myself constantly stuffing them in at night, often times RIGHT before going to bed.  Doing that kicked me into weight loss again and I lost another 2 lbs!  I wouldn't RECOMMEND doing it, but I don't see any harm.  Who knows though!  Everyone is different...

For the record I am trying to space out my calories more evenly because I HATE having that insanely full feeling.  Thankfully by doing it at night the bloating/stuffed feeling is gone by morning. 

Also, I find it strange, but after the few late night binges I have had, I woke up and looked more toned than ever =P

So far, from experience, it's the calories that matter, not the time.  But maybe that gets turned around at some point and I just haven't hit it yet...

I think it's a personal thing.  There are general rules with fueling for activity, like you need carbs  for certain activities and protein for others.  And if you don't fuel your body right, you'll run out of energy, or overindulge or starve your body.  But I think biological clocks are very individual. 

well i think there is some validity to eating at certain times for the day, but i think it should go by your own schedule, not just exact times during an average day. like me, my work schedule is so varied, i couldn't possibly wake up at the same time everyday to eat breakfast, or eat dinner before a certain time everyday. half of the week i need to be up at 5 am for work, the other half, i don't get out of work until midnight. so i go by my own personal schedule for the day. on the days i work early, i eat right when i wake up, eat lunch around 1-2, then dinner at 7. the days id ont have to be at work until 3 or 4, i eat at 10 or 11, then lunch is at 3, then dinner is a little later, if i woke up at 5 am on a day after i didnt get home from work until 12:30 just to eat breakfast, i'd be crazy.

Thanks for the input, everybody!

I'm simply a Night-Owl by nature, and find this to be another reason to avoid staying up too late... along with the stress that lack of enough sleep creates, and the extra hungries that attack me if I'm up later...

My main reason to avoid late eating is more due to morning weighing...! If I don't have time to 'remove it,' I'd rather not eat it late... I prefer fruit and light stuff like high fiber cereal if I eat later...

I do believe in small spaced out meals instead of large, harder to digest all-at-once meals...  They seem more likely to cause food storage when I want food burning, lol!

I don't like feeling hungry-- or feeling over-full, either! Small 5-6 meals suits me...

The hardest thing for me is that if I eat late at night, it's not an apple.  It's a bag of popcorn.  So I need to not eat after 7 to keep the snacking monsters away. 

I have a crazy schedule and at times I need to eat later than I want to. On Tuesday and Thursday I teach during the day, hike, work out, teach night school, swim at the gym and don't get home until after 10pm. If I forget my ATM card or don't pack dinner I find that when I get home I may have had 1000 calories and burned upwards of 5000 calories. When that happens I try to eat lean protien and drink a ton of water. It works for me. Every other night I try to stop eating after about 8.

The lower your BodyFat gets the harder its going to be to get away with 'eating whenever you want'. Nutrient timing is a complicated issue, and something body builders/fitness models pay attention to. Its not that eating 'late' is bad, it has more to do with what you eat late. I highly recommend anyone who's lifting heavy to have a nice Casein protein shake, or some very protein dense foods close to bed or right before bed. Your body needs the nutrients, and will use them to rebuild muscle. But if you ingest 1000cals of simple carbs, you won't possibly burn them off before they will be ultimately stored as fat.

The lifestyle cut diet talks about a lot of this, and can be found here.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/beast47.htm

When I first started working out heavily, I mean really intense, balls to the wall workouts, I would wake up in the middle of the night ravenous and have to get up to eat something or I couldn't get back to sleep. 

I had my workouts in the evenings after work so my dinner some nights wouldn't be until 8 or 9pm, and i'd be in bed by 10 or 11pm.  Granted it wouldn't be more than about 400 cals, but there were no rules for me about eating late. 

I didn't read the article, but if your metabolism is working at a healthy rate, you should be able to eat whenever you like.  That of course doesn't mean eating 2000 calories an hour before bedtime, but it also means there shouldn't be any food rules for you that say "don't eat after 6pm or you'll get fat".

There's nothing in this article that proves eating late causes weight gain. 

"Body processes—such as gut motility in digestion or the absorption of nutrients from food—also seem to operate on a kind of body clock showing decreased activity at night. But there do not appear to be studies that prove that if you eat past a certain time you will gain weight because of it."

Use common sense, eat moderately and sensibly, small meals spaced throughout the day to keep from overeating, eat when hungry stop when full, and quit with all the food rules!  You should do just fine eating whenever you want.

I eat about half of my calories between the hours of 6 and 9 and go to bed at 10.  I've never gained weight from it.

Original Post by shandykat:

There's nothing in this article that proves eating late causes weight gain.

"Body processes—such as gut motility in digestion or the absorption of nutrients from food—also seem to operate on a kind of body clock showing decreased activity at night. But there do not appear to be studies that prove that if you eat past a certain time you will gain weight because of it."

Use common sense, eat moderately and sensibly, small meals spaced throughout the day to keep from overeating, eat when hungry stop when full, and quit with all the food rules! You should do just fine eating whenever you want.

"You should do just fine eating whenever you want."

I know in theory it should be fine especially since I run a pretty hefty deficit but for some crazy reason the scale doesn't budge in the morning if I've eaten anything after dinner. Everyone's metabolic rates are different and I'm just saying mine doesn't burn anything quickly at night. It's a mystery to me too but you gotta do what works for you, right?

Agreed...!

Just trying to learn WHAT works for me, lol...!!!!

I think that if you are controlling the calories and have a meal late, it shouldn't make that much of a difference. I think some advice that I've been given is that you should give at least an hour or so before you go to bed after eating. In any case if there haven't been any specific scientific studies in this area it will be hard to say.

What I've found is that when I did change my habits from eating late to eating early, I certainly felt better overall by the time I headed to bed. Now on my diet I've continued to do that and so I can't say for certain if it makes much difference.

My wife recently wanted to lose some pounds and found that if she only had a light meal for dinner but had her main meal earlier in the day, it helped with her weight loss. She would eat between 7pm - 8pm but usually no later then that. She is convinced it works.

Ultimately as long as you are burning off the intake and then some you will lose weight. Eating earlier may make it easier though. I certainly would recommend eating earlier and also going to bed. Sleep helps with weight loss too.

see: A lie-in may help you lose weight

I think it is better if you eat earlier then later.

Original Post by iknowmychicken:

If I snack at all at night the scale does not budge for me even if I have a deficit of 500- 1000 calories! 

 Maybe one or two nights, especially depending on your own metabolism, and also depending on what you eat (salty late nigh snacks are a killer when you get on the scale in the morning.)

But I guarantee, if you ate a little healthy snack, even late at night, and still managed to maintain a deficit of 500-1000 caloried per day, EVERY day, you would lose weight.

These things do vary somewhat from person to person (for example, for me, going to bed with a rumbling tummy makes for a terrible night's sleep.  It is worth it to me to have 100 calories reserved for 8:30 pm so that I don't have a crappy day at work the next day.)

But at some point, there are mathematical absolutes that govern these things.

My two cents: I've been drinking a casein protein shake before bed for several years with no ill effects.

Original Post by abunaimah:

My wife recently wanted to lose some pounds and found that if she only had a light meal for dinner but had her main meal earlier in the day, it helped with her weight loss. She would eat between 7pm - 8pm but usually no later then that. She is convinced it works.

Ultimately as long as you are burning off the intake and then some you will lose weight. Eating earlier may make it easier though. I certainly would recommend eating earlier and also going to bed. Sleep helps with weight loss too.

I second this posting.  I try to make my midday meal my most calorie laden and then have a lighter meal around 6:30 or 7, then the kitchen is closed.  When I do this routine I lose weight, when I stray from it and eat more of my calories at the end of the day, I plateau or gain weight.

It's tough for me, though, because I'm chasing 3 littles ones most of the day, so I get into bad ruts where it's relaxing for me to sit after everyone's in bed and snack with a glass of wine (or two).  But even though I stay within my calorie limits, I never lose weight when I do that.  It's pretty frustrating when you're working out tons and eating well and not seeing results (other than muscle strength/ definition). 

My personal weight loss style, though, pretty much insists on no evening snacking and no vino.

Thinking of all that's been shared here has been very interesting... I see Truth in calories vs. burn being the same regardless of time consumed...except when too much is consumed at one time...!

However, I don't see losses when I eat late... on the next morning's weigh in...

And, I've read elsewhere of changes in internal rythyms and functions that showed some Truth in not eating late... * sigh *

It IS confusing...!

My personal plan to to follow what my Nutritionist told me, which is the same as what I was instructed in Tom Venuto's famous E-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle."

If you are interested in what I was told, here is a link to it... It was a Sticky for a while.

http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/post/716 45.html

Thanks for all the helpful thoughts!