Does WHEN you eat effect weight loss? Opinions please?
 

Had a recent debate with a friend.. we are arguing over:

WHEN TRYING TO LOSE WEIGHT....
whether or not it means anything if you eat a meal right before bed versus eating the same meal 3-4 hours before bed.. Thoughts?

Some say it makes no difference.. Others say you will lose weight slower if you're eating right before bed!

THOUGHTS?

I live by the rule that if you are not hungry when you first wake up in the morning, it means you ate too late/too much last night

Go ask them at jennycraig.com

Depends what you eat. Small yogurt or Cottage cheese is ok before bed for example because it has slow proteins.

Tell you what, when I got on a diet a few months ago, I started eating a lot of vegetables along with meat of corse. Sweets were not excluded, but I started eating on certain time. Like 9am, 1pm, 6pm. Yes, it certainly helps your stomach to prepare for the meal and quickly digest it. I think it does effect weight loss too.

Well your body slows down at night and doesn't need the food as much. This can be turned into fat.

However, as someone who has been through the weight loss thing, not eating late at night can also mean your body goes 12-14 hours without any food. I've heard people say "I don't eat after 7pm". That is just going to slow down your metabolism and could have a worse affect in my opinion. The key to weight loss is keeping your metabolism rolling along fast. Going long periods of time without food is a big no-no and forces your body into starvation mode where your metabolism will slow down and start eating muscle. You never want your body to think it's going to go a long time without food.

So my suggestion and what I had the best success with was eating something real small an hour to a half hour before bed. I stayed away from carbs and usually downed some cottage cheese, chicken, or peanut butter. I actually used to cook up big batches of chicken breasts, cut them up, and throw them in the fridge. Before bed I'd grab a few pieces to keep me tidy overnight. Just make sure that you grab breakfast first thing in the morning.

You sir, are correct! :thumbsup

P.S. I just lost 35 lbs.

Excellent recommendation. Your body rebuilds muscle at night too, in the case of PocketKangaroo, the common denominator is that they had protein before bed. A protein shake (if you can find a decent tasting one) would work well too. Just make sure it's not a meal replacement (slimfast, etc) and loaded down with sugars/carbs/etc. (some carbs are fine, as you need them to help break down and use the protein.) Otherwise, the items that PK recommended above are great too.

I eat IN bed sometimes about 10 mins before I go to sleep. No wonder I am fat.

when I go to bed I stick a huge slice of pizza in my mouth (I look a bit like a baby with a pacifier), then I have one of those glucose drips attached to my arm with a needle stuck in my vein except that the glucose is replaced by 6 litres of coke, I also take two packets of my favorite biscuits, one in each hand, in case I wake up craving something sweet...

2 hrs before you go to sleep should be your last meal, and you will be hungry when you wake up if you ate the right portion.

You can eat before going to bed as long as you're not eating like 100g of carbohyrdates which will get stored as fat while you sleep. Something with protein/fat is a good choice a few hours before bed time. Fat with make the protein digest slow and prevent muscle break down during the 8-10 hour night time fast :)

PK just weight-lossed the correct. Best answer so far.

asking a bunch of fat webmasters isnt the right solution if you ask me :P


Although PocketKangaroo and Evil. E had the right answers.

Try bodybuilding.com for the best advice

Of course it affects... eating in the morning is healthier and better... night eating is GOOD, but good for gaining weight, lol

do you mean that after eating you will go directly to bed or wait for a few minutes like 30mins to 1 hour to let the food go down? cause if you go directly to sleep after eating that isn't good...if you want to lose weight ask a doctor that will give you necessary diet menu...i don't think eating at this time or that time will make any difference if you don't eat the right food that will make you lose weight...and put some exercise...

I think its proved eating the right breakfast cereal/yoghurt etc can increase your metabolism. I dont eat junk food but i dont keep up on health news either but it stands to reason your going to burn food a lot slower whilst sleeping. Your laying there doing nothing, 3-4 hours before sleep you will be moving and burning calories.

What you are eating in the latter part of the day is more important than the timing. Eating lots of simple carbs, starchy carbs or sugars or too many calories obverall right before bed will tend to store much of it as fat. You are better off eating your heavy carbs and starchy carbs like rice or potatoes early in the day while you are still active and eat low calories fibrous carbs like green vegetables and pure proteins like say a chicken breast and a very small amount of healthy fats like almonds closer to bedtime. Bodybuilders trying to get lean also use another practice relating to carb timing- eating lower carbs (mostly low calorie fibrous vegetables) on some days, like when they do cardio and higher carbs on days they lift weights and vary this schedule day to day every week.