Hi,

Anyone see the Oprah show today on weight loss/weight management tips? Thought I'd open up a thread for comments/suggestions/ideas.

Hi Tara,

I just got finished watching it. It was a rerun but a good one.

Some of the ideas were ones we heard before but it is good to reenforce them - maybe this time they will stick.

Some of her little recipes looked good. I am hoping they are posted on her website so that I can try them.

The sports bra that she talked about is really good. I wear a 36HH and was having to wear 2-3 bras to work out. I purchased it and it is like a miracle bra for me. I can run and jump and "the girls" dont go anywhere.

The 3 hour cut off before bed is a hard one for me. That is when I do most of my binge eating. I am working on it.

I'm living proof you can eat late at night, EVERY night, and still lose weight. Provided you eat something healthy and you keep it within your calorie range for the day.

That old 'myth' (yes, I call it a myth) of not eating 3-4 hours before bedtime is just ridiculous.

However, this is just my personal opinion, let it be known.

I'm with Linda on eating before bed. I often save up some calories to eat then and feel I sleep better if I don't have a grumbly tummy.

Recent research indicates it doesn't much matter when we eat. In fact, it may be beneficial to eat a bit later in the evening (less time your body is without food may help metabolism). I think that's a big reason we are supposed to have something for breakfast -- jump start the metabolism.

So, if you have issues binging late and not eating is a way to stop that, or you want to stop for other reasons, do so. But you can be successful and eat in the evening...

Yep, I had a dietitian tell me I NEED to eat something later at night, between dinner and bedtime, as I had WAY too long between dinner and breakfast. I just have a banana and small yoghurt, and both of these are supposed to actually help relax you and help you sleep better. I have to say that it DEFINITELY works for me.

Zelma

I had tried the not eating late before and I just couldn't do it. I always save a healthy snack for late in the evenings. Otherwise, I'd wake up hungry during the night and eat anything. I usually have fruit of the evening or some yogurt.

I do the same thing! I HAVE to or else I cannot go to sleep hungry. I eat little meals and such and I have lost a good amount of weight. I sometimes eat right before I go to sleep because I will be getting hungry but also tried (that doesn't mean I eat that much before I do sleep). It just depends on what you eat and how much calories you intake/burn.



Edit: Great posts up there^. I agree with you guys.

Yep, girls, I agree with all of you and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. If I don't 'plan' to eat something before bed (meaning I always plan what I'm going to eat so the calories are counted before I eat it) then I lay there with my stomach rumbling. And guess what? I eventually cave and go out to the kitchen and mindlessly eat stuff I shouldn't. So every night I plan my snack and get it ready if it needs a little fixing so when I'm ready to head to bed (most nights I'm up until 11 or 12 or later) I grab my planned munchie and off I go.

I tried the not eating before bed thing and I couldn't do it. I actually ended up eating MORE than I should have because, again, I'd cave and go dig something up anyway. I can't sleep when I'm hungry. So knowing I was going to eat late at night anyway, I started working my late-night snack into my calorie allowance for the day. If what I want occasionally means giving up a few calories throughout the day (eating less than usual) then I do it and deal with it, just so I can have my late-night MUNCH!

From what I read on a nutritionists website, it's actually beneficial to eat late at night (as long as you don't eat junk, of course) because giving your body a little more nutrition before bed keeps your metabolism running longer as you're sleeping.

Well, against my better judgement, i watched it. (well, really, my mom watched it--i was busy sewing) I really can't stand Oprah. Like, at all. And i dont agree with a lot of her rules, including not eating late at night, as others have said.

I like the 2-3 hour cut off for eating, mostly because it sets a limit for me...once the clock chimes 7:30 I am DONE. I set a time and I know that's it....I guess I work better with rules.

I don't like her either.

~snicker~

I happen to LOOOOVE Oprah but I definitely do not agree with the not eating at a certain time before bed. I am also living proof you can eat a huge dinner at 9:00 pm every night and still lose 70 lbs. I rarely eat a snack AFTER dinner though, but I would if I were hungry. I normally eat at: 7, 10, 12, 2, 4, 6, 8-9 with 7:00 breakfast, 12:00 lunch and 8-9:00 dinner being my large meals, the rest are snacks. I stay full and satisfied all day. No way I could go to sleep hungry!

I agree with all of you about eating at night. Dinner is my highest calorie meal of the day and I usually have a snack after dinner (anything from sugar-free candy to low cal pudding to fruit). I also eat dinner pretty late, never before 7 PM and sometimes not until 9 PM. The other night I made something new that I got a late start on and it took longer than I thought, so we didn't eat until almost 10 PM. But then, I don't go to bed until 11:30 PM or midnight, so I guess even eating as late as 8 PM is three hours before I go to bed. Still if weight loss were dependent on not eating at night, I'd still be 30 pounds heavier than I am.

I was at the gym when Oprah was on and only managed to catch a few minutes of it. What was her foolproof tip for avoiding sugar cravings at home? She teased this before the commercial break but I wasn't able to catch the tip when she came back from commercial.

- Barbara

I don't have a set time after which I don't eat, but I don't eat after dinner. In the past, dinner was usually around 7 or 7:30, and I would go to bed around 11:30. Now I eat dinner at 5 or 5:30 and go to bed around 10:30. Though I used to eat sometimes at night, I don't anymore b/c now I don't like the feeling of having food in my stomach when I'm going to sleep. I guess I just got used to it, and now I prefer it. It's kind of weird, I never thought I would prefer it that way! I'm not ravenous when I go to bed, only slightly hungry sometimes or not hungry. Weird, huh?

If that works for you, then keep doing it! So much of this is finding out what YOU like and don't like. Doing something only because "they" say you should may be counterproductive.

Like breakfast. For reasons similar to why eating late may be beneficial, eating breakfast is supposed to be beneficial. Does that mean you must eat breakfast to lose weight? No.

Probably all of us have some things we do that aren't "ideal" as far as the experts are concerned, but we have to take everything and make it work for us.

All that being said, I have found it helps to be open minded about trying things that I am not sure would work for me... some things work and some things don't. Some things don't work once but work later with some tweaking. Some things might work, but I either choose not to do them, or am not ready to embrace yet...