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In my opinion, how you space your calories throughout the day doesn't matter NEARLY as much as how much you eat and the quality of those calories. Pastries, cookies, and other sweets can be part of a healthy plan in moderation, but they have plenty of calories with very little nutritional value, so you probably want to limit them as part of a healthy diet.
For me personally, I can't eat sweets early in the day. It sort of triggers my mouth to crave sweet things all day and I tend to eat more all day.
I do better later in the day and have more self control to stop eating.
I agree with Manda in principle. I don't think it really matters when you eat sweets or treats as long as it all fits w/in your calorie range (or whatever eating plan you're on) for the day.
Me personally - I can't deal with sweet things in the morning. It sets me off for carb cravings all day. Also I do think that the morning meal is pretty important in starting the day right and I think personally that having a balanced breakfast with some protein and some complex carbs is a much better and healthier option for you than starting off with junky sweet stuff like pastries or doughnuts or whatever.
And I honestly don't believe that having cookies, pies, and pastries every day as a "breakfast" is a reasonable or healthy diet plan.
If you don't have blood sugar issues or carb craving issues I also agree that "when" probably doesn't matter - but also that daily sweets (especially as the first meal of the day) are probably not a terrific idea.
Even as a kid, I may have had blood sugar issues, because eating sweets in the morning made me feel nauseous. I could never have doughnuts, or even pancakes in the morning without feeling terrible immediately after. I also am very carb-sensitive, and sweets and starchy foods make me hungrier, not only for sweets, but for absolutely anything and everything. It's not an uncommon reaction to carbs, and if you do notice that you have even a moderate increase in hunger with carbohydrates, it's especially important to be very vigilant regarding balancing your diet, not only for nutrition, but for hunger control (hunger control isn't necessary for weight loss - you can lose weight feeling like you're starving all the time, but I don't recommend it. If you can control hunger, eating less is a lot easier). If you find that you do not have trigger foods, foods that are difficult to portion control or foods that seem to trigger stronger hunger, then eat sweets during any time you would like to, but try to make sure that your sweets are small indulgences, not regular meal replacements.
Your starting weight matters too, and the calories level you need to lose weight. The fewer calories that are needed to lose weight, the less room you have for nutritionally empty food. If you've got a lot of weight to lose or just have a metabolism that allows you to lose weight on 2200 calories, it may not be difficult to eat a balanced diet and have 200 calories of sweets every day or frequently. However daily sweets on a 1200 calorie food plan doesn't leave much room at all for nutritionally empty foods. The less you eat, the more you have to make every calorie count (though at any calorie level, it sure is a good idea).
Good luck in finding the balance, that's often the hardest part for us all.
If you eat junk it doesn't matter when it's consumed. The bottom line is that your calories have to be in deficit the vast majority of the time to drop weight.
I find the more starchy, junky things I consume, the more I want. I try to eat lean proteins and whole grains in the morning. I find I am more satisfied not just in the morning but throughout the whole day.
ETA--you could always try to bake some of your own things with whole wheat flour if you find you are still wanting this type of thing. I made banana bread recently but not adding any sugar (overripe bananas are sweet enough) whole wheat flour, egg whites, etc. It was pretty good actually.
Last edited by Thighs Be Gone; 11-26-2008 at 12:29 PM.
Eating your sweets in the morning?
