does is matter WHEN you eat?

hi, i was curious about how when you eat can affect weight loss or gain (that is if it affects it at all).

normally i eat most of my calories in the morning and during the day, and my dinner is small and normally consists of only 200-250 calories, which i eat around 6-6:30 pm. today i was out all day and in order to reach my calorie goal i had to eat a LOT of calories after 7 pm; it sort of made me unsettled.

since i ate a lot closer to bed time, am i less likely to burn off those calories since all i'm doing is lazing around until i go to sleep? or does it not matter WHEN i eat them, as long as they fit into my daily allowance?

it matters not when you complete your day's calorie allowance.  As long as you stay within your allotment, having a snack just before bed is quite all right -- or a full meal.

However -- it is often uncomfortable to go to bed on a full stomach; many times the calories we consume late at night are junk calories, eaten mindlessly as we sit in front of our computers/TVs; and since there is less time for digestion, often the weight of the food/waste and/or sodium effects will stick with us through an early morning weigh in (temporarily)

i'm not entirely sure if i'm right, but i think that main bad points about not eating through the day are 1. your metabolism is affected 2. you end up hungrier and eat more.

since this is only a one off thing, though, i don't think it's much of a problem for you. as long as your calories in - calories burn remains more or less the same, you'll lose weight. I guess if you weigh yourself in the morning tmr you'll be slightly heavier than usual cause of water weight/the food is still in your body etc? But it'll come off as per normal....

IF you space your meals to about 3-4 hours between each meal and eat small 250-350 calorie meals, you keep your metabolism going and you digest your food better.  I know that for sure.

I have always heard to try to stop eating about 2 hours before you go to bed to give your body time to digest before you put it in "sleep time mode."  But, I've also heard to eat a little healthy snack before bed as to keep your metabolism going as much as you can.  Personally, I'm not sure hwat is more true! lol  If I have a late night snack, I try to make it yogurt or veggies, something light.

In my experience, eating late at night HAS affected my morning weigh in....but, just don't weigh the next day! ha ha ha

I'm sorry that I don't have the definitive answer, but maybe that would be a good one for the nutritionalist just to be certain!! I'd like to see her answer!

oh, thanks for all the replies :]

alright, so what i'm getting is that the food is more likely to stick with you. which is fine, because i don't have a scale in the first place so i'll never know.

i'll also be up past 12:30 am anyway, so i think my food will have been digested by then haha.

My new non-chucklehead personal trainer (fifth time's the charm!) suggests loading the most calories at the beginning of the day, declining to a light dinner, so apparently there's a popular disparity in best advice for how much to eat when.

I completely agree with NicSmilingBig here! I wake up at 6-7am every morning and go to sleep around 12:15-12:30am every night... so I don't know what your schedule looks like but eating my final meal at 6-7pm wouldn't work at all for me! lol!

Here's my routine (6 outta 7 days a week) and maybe this will help you:

7am - Kashi GoLean & 4 egg whites + 1 bottle of water

10:45am - Protein bar (270 cals MAX, minimum of 20g protein) + 1 bottle of water

1pm - Nap

2pm - Meat & leafy green salad + 1 bottle of water

5pm - 1-2 cups of raw veggies (cut up carrots, squash, zuchinni, brocolli, whatever!) + 1 bottle of water

6:30-7:15pm - Weight training

7:15-8pm - Cardio training

9pm - Protein shake w/ oatmeal or quinoa, plain lite tofu, and soy milk. (300 cals, 60g protein, 4g fiber, 0 sugar, 10 carbs)

This schedule keeps me full consitently and I never have to worry about anything really... carbs, fat, cals... I mean I still log it but I don't trip and I never feel that yucky too full feeling in the AM. Then I take one day a week to eat whatever I want whenever I want (although it's funny but the longer I diet the less I find myself splurging on my "off" day; gives me a sick feeling).

Hopefully that helps you... and yeah if I ate a bunch of stuff right before bed I feel totally disgusted the next day too...

 

 

Original Post by nicsmilingbig:

IF you space your meals to about 3-4 hours between each meal and eat small 250-350 calorie meals, you keep your metabolism going and you digest your food better.  I know that for sure.

I have always heard to try to stop eating about 2 hours before you go to bed to give your body time to digest before you put it in "sleep time mode."  But, I've also heard to eat a little healthy snack before bed as to keep your metabolism going as much as you can.  Personally, I'm not sure hwat is more true! lol  If I have a late night snack, I try to make it yogurt or veggies, something light.

In my experience, eating late at night HAS affected my morning weigh in....but, just don't weigh the next day! ha ha ha

I'm sorry that I don't have the definitive answer, but maybe that would be a good one for the nutritionalist just to be certain!! I'd like to see her answer!

I'm not an expert, but I know if I eat dinner late (around 8pm) that I always gain two pounds the next day.  My body doesn't like it when I eat late and then go to bed around 10:30-11pm.

It does matter...The army which my hubby just joined has the soldiers on a plan where they eat only breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner no snacks. At each meal they have the major food grps and they eat at the same time each way. Through the nutritionist that the army hires they say it optimizes fat burning potential...I personally do not know how much...but if the army knows one thing its how to get the recruits in shape and healthy

It matters to me when I eat them. If I eat too late I also gain weight by the next day. I actually just saw something on TV about sumo wrestling. When they really need to add the weight fast they eat at night becouse your metabolism slows down then. So now when I want to reach for something and the clock is getting late, I just ask myself "do you want to be a sumo wrestler?"  I don't think so.