eating dinner late - does it make you put on weight?

[stuckindamiddle]

Due to working, exercising and DC's bedtime routine we rarely eat dinner before 8. Does that make it harder to lose weight and more likely you'll gain, or is that an old wives' tale?

Surely overall calorie / fat intake vs activity level is what really matters, not when you eat?

Old wives tale me thinks! I prefer to eat my dinner at around 8pm, as opposed to half 5 because then I don't get the evening munchies for chocolate, cake and crisps!

I'm no expert but I don't think it matters as long as you're still eating the right portions. My rule is that I eat what I want before midday as I have the rest of the day to be active and burn calories. We eat after 8 and I avoid carbs as it just feels heavy in my stomach as I don't do much in the evening.

Not very scientific or helpful. Exercise helps above all else to lose weight.

Its not really an old wives tale, we have a natural (circadian) rhythm that follows daylight and our activity levels, so its better to eat our biggest meals at breakfast and lunch, that is when our metabolisms are at peak activity and so are we...apparently sumo wrestlers eat at 4am to maximise their weight, when metabolism is lowest ....it also depends when you go to bed, if you eat and then head to bed shortly after then your sleep may be affected and this in itself can impact on appetite and weight. Better to leave, ideally, 3 hours between dinner and bed. But having said that, some people can happily eat late in the evening and not gain weight, everyone is different and we need to experiment to find what works for our own body.

If you are trying to lose weight then its probably more important to look at what you are eating in the evening, you won't need much in the way of carbohydrate for energy for example planned athletic bedroom activity notwithstanding and it should be a small meal compared to lunch and breakfast.

I hardly ever eat my dinner before 8pm and I've lost nearly 2 stone in the last couple of months. IMO it's the overall
Amount of calories one is putting in that counts.

makes no difference, no magic clock in the stomach. Talk of food turning to flab after a certain time belongs in the 'babble' box with detox.

many in the Mediterranean eat at 9pm or later, they aren't all fat.

as mentioned; it is how much, not when.

Thanks for the reassurances!

I eat dinner at 9pm and have lost six stones.

That's interesting travel. Where can I
find more info on the hormones \ different types of calories thing please? Thanks

Also take a look at The Calorie Myth by Jonathon Bailor. And re hormones, Alissa Vitti goes into this in some detail in Woman Code although it is very much focused on women (unsurprisingly) and menstrual cycles/pcos/infertility. Looks at how hormones work to affect weight and how different food affects them.

Another person doing some really interesting work in nutrition/metabolism is Matt Stone.

Thanks for all the reading tips!

Scientifically I have no idea, but we usually eat between 8 and 9 but very healthily, over Christmas we ate lots of rich food and drank lots but ate at 6:30 with the kids. I lost 4lbs

The reason eating earlier helps you lose weight is because overall you will eat less. You are eating across fewer hours of the day, iyswim. Giving yourself a cut off time, is like a small fast every day. In fact there is a variation of the fast diet that allows you to eat any 8 hours out of 24.

Mrs Bungle, how did you lose 2 stone in 2 months? I would love to do that!!

I reckon it's just because if you eat late you are more likely to eat a mini tea around 5.

If I do a high impact aerobics class at 7pm I don't eat until 8.30pm . I keep in mind that although you slow down at night if you've had a work out the body's charged enough to cope with the meal

I often eat late at night, sometimes 1/2 an hour before bed. I've lost 30 pounds since January.

I eat late, 10pm ish almost every night, but have lost weight by eating healthy overall. Maybe I'd have lost more weight if I ate earlier but have still managed to do so IYSWIM.

Think there's probably something in the idea that if you eat late then that means there's more snacking/grazing time in your day. Think if you are careful it shouldn't be a problem.