The only reason I try to limit time-of-day eating is so that my food has time to digest before my body heads off into deep sleep. I always thought that during deep sleep, everything, including your rate of digestion, calories expended, etc., slows down.
I don't think it's a good idea to eat a full dinner and then lay right down to sleep (think Thanksgiving dinner). Therefore, I try to stop eating an hour or two before I go to sleep. Or, rather, after eating anything substantial (anything heavier than just a quick snack), I try to stay up long enough for the digestion to get into full swing.
Since I'm a night owl by nature, night time eating is a given for me. Holy cow, if I had to stop eating at 6pm I'd be ravanous... ravenous... raevenous... um HUNGRY by bedtime!!!
I'll agree with Less of Lena-IMHO, it's more a matter of not going to bed *right after having eaten*. Eating at 8 and going to bed at 10 is perfectly acceptable, in my book.
I've never abided by the "don't eat later than 6pm" rule anyway (and it didn't prevent me from losing weight), mostly because if I eat too early, I end up grazing by 9 pm (I'm not an early sleeper, and eating at 6 would mean sleeping at 8 to avoid snacking? Yuck...*shoot herself at the only thought*).
The belief was that if you ate late at night, the calories would "stick" to you. But eating 1200 cals. a day is eating 1200 cals. a day and if you burn up more than you take in, you're gonna lose weight! Same goes for the type of calories. 1200 calories of celery is not much different from 1200 calories of mayonnaise, except celery provides more fiber and the fat in mayonnaise takes less energy to store as fat in the body (guess you skip a step).
What cracks me up are the people who believe that certaining combinations of foods are "taboo." If you are told you can't combine "fat" and "carbs" in the same meal, yes, you'll lose weight. It's not because of science or strange metabolism boosting effect. It's because if you are forbidden to combine them, then you can't eat cake, french fries, cookies, etc. So you've just found a different way to cut out junk. (Although I will admit that it's better to eat a bit of protein with fruit because it'll slow down the sugar rush from fruit. Eating fruit by itself makes me very hungry.)
Planning is everything. I have always been an evening snacker. It's something that I've had to deal with. I leave calories for later. Nobody should go to bed hungry.
That's what I do. I've always been a late-night snacker and when I began my lifestyle change, I tried cutting that out and found that I just couldn't do it. Because on the nights I forced myself to stay away from my usual (and very addictive) habit, I'd lay there wide awake - hungry - wanting something to eat - and I'd end up in the kitchen stuffing my face with things I shouldn't have had. So I made a 'pact' with myself that from then on I was going to save calorie room for whatever I wanted to eat at night and I PLAN what I'm going to eat so I don't mindlessly go bonkers with stuff I don't need.
My calories aren't used up by the end of the evening because I don't allow them to be. I make sure I save those calories for whatever I want to eat at night and if that means being a little hungry during the day, it's no big deal to me. I'm used to it. I'd rather have a few hunger pangs than give up my late-night munchies.
It's a trade-off. Small sacrifices, if you will. You just have to be willing to make them
Yeah, I've always had the idea that time of day really doesn't matter. I mean, why does it matter when you eat, because it's all going to the same place? But I figure it's not so much for the people who get up later and stay up later (thus, eat later) than for the people who eat breakfast/lunch/dinner at a normal time and then feel compelled to eat a 4th meal late just because there's room in their bellies.
What cracks me up are the people who believe that certaining combinations of foods are "taboo." If you are told you can't combine "fat" and "carbs" in the same meal, yes, you'll lose weight. It's not because of science or strange metabolism boosting effect. It's because if you are forbidden to combine them, then you can't eat cake, french fries, cookies, etc. So you've just found a different way to cut out junk. (Although I will admit that it's better to eat a bit of protein with fruit because it'll slow down the sugar rush from fruit. Eating fruit by itself makes me very hungry.)
Haha, that's a nice way of explaining it.
I had started by following such a "plan" (it also involved glycemin index). I've kind of dropped that now. I could do without the cakes etc, but being "forbidden" to eat an egg with a slice of bread in the morning because it's a "wrong" combination did, uhm, suck in the long run. I still go on with the glycemic thing, since it seems healthier to me (who needs processed foods anyway), but the forbidden combinations... meh.
I've always thought that concepts such as "don't eat after x time" or rigid food combinations were just ways to complicate the the "eat less" part of weight loss, and make people feel more in control. Eating less, moving more is simple and effective, but it's far from easy.
