Health, Fatness and Training

[defy-one]

I find that keeping a food diary helps, be honest and put everything down. It's surprising but I find it works, even though you're the only one reading it
you think twice about picking up those crisps or chocolate knowing that it's has to go in the diary.

This has worked very well, and helped me to understand the relation of different foods/calorie value and my weight. Almost 2 stone down now

 

[JoeyB]

My diet during the week consists of (mostly) tuna wraps for lunch and a couple of chicken breasts with veg (sometimes rice) for dinner. Mid Morning and mid afternoon I have half a serving of fatty bum bum shake (mass gainer essentially).

At the weekend I'm a lot less strict and make sure I carb up on a Saturday so I'm good for a run on Sunday morning!

I get plenty of exercise and my weight is starting to level out nicely. I've lost a stone since I starting training for the great south run.

 

[VamP]

Some really useful advise on this thread, thanks for all the contributors.



Hi Vam, thanks for the link, I too had seen this recommended before, so have just bought and downloaded it to my iPad.

Regards

Chris

hope it works for you.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I don't need to have studied biology to know that my body knows that it's midnight. For one, I'm usually asleep. And if I'm not, I'm tired.

I don't know whether there's anything in the theory that it's better to eat earlier because otherwise food is more easily stored as fat, but dismissing the theory on the basis of nonsensical statements isn't very sensible.

Not quite sure what it was I dismissed

 

[srw]

Not quite sure what it was I dismissed

My mistake - you didn't. Tadpole did. Consider my remarks aimed at that user, not at you.

 

[tadpole]

Sorry Tadople but your post is absolute rubbish. Peeps do not follow this advice.

Have you studied any biology in particular metabolism and nutrition because your post suggests you missed out on this?

So let me get this right, eating after a quantifiable time at night (say 7pm) will change the calorific value of the food you eat and make it change instantly into stored fat?
Or are you saying that people in a coma do not need to eat, as they are technically asleep and the body doesn’t burn calories when you are asleep?

Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the minimum amount of calories your body needs, just to live, not move about or sit up, just live. 24 hours a day 365.249 days a year. You know of course that you are burning calories all the time. Every second of every day

Next you multiply your BMR by a fixed amount to take into account your activity level
Harris Benedict Equation

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

This gives you your: Total Daily Energy Expenditure
The TDEE is used to calculate the amount of calories your body needs to function in a normal day, what you need to move about and live.
So once you’ve worked out what you need to live your normal everyday life, you then calculate what you have to eat to lose weight.
There are two common ways to do this.
Either take your TDEE and subtract between 500 calories or 1000 calories (equates to between 1lb and 2lb per week)
Or
Eat your BMR and add your exercise calories.

MY TDEE is 2500 calories a day (that is what it takes to support/repair/fuel me in my sedentary life.
So I aim to eat 2000 calories per day on my “none exercise” days and 2000 + my exercise calories the rest of the time. TDEE minus 500 calories per day equals 1lb weight loss per week
(Personally I don’t eat them all back as both calculating my BMR/TDEE, and the Calories in my food is a bit more black magic rather than science)

However, getting back to my point
If I eat 4 meals at 500 calories per meal and burn 1000 calories doing exercise, I am in deficit, as I need to eat 2500 calories to live my sedentary life. So when I eat my chicken wrap at 9pm (380 calories) my body will use them to replace glucose and glycogen, and if there is any left over, then and only then, does it store them.
Now between your liver and muscles you can store roughly 1400 to 1600 calories worth glycogen. So living in a permanent deficit situation - as you must, to lose weight- you never get to the point where there is anything left, after your 1200 calories (BMR) your exercise Calories 1000 and the recharging of the liver/muscle glycogen 1400. Calories in equals 2000 calories – out equals 3600.

According to Columbia University Health Services. Calories you consume late at night have the same energy value as calories you consume at any other time. Some people have success reaching their weight loss goals by including an evening snack to stave off hunger and possible overeating the next day. For others, not eating after a certain time in the evening means successfully avoiding sugary or high-fat foods that can derail an otherwise healthy weight loss plan.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/440180-what-are-benefits-of-not-eating-before-bed/#ixzz275M5RNl7


Maintaining healthy nutrition is important for exercise because your muscles rely heavily on the foods, and primarily the carbohydrates, you eat daily. Your body digests carbohydrates into glucose (simple sugar), and either uses it for energy or stores it for later use. Extra glucose is stored mostly in the form of muscle glycogen (complex sugar). When you exercise, your body uses both glucose (quick, simple sugars) and glycogen (longer lasting, complex sugars)
http://health.columbia.edu/

There is no magic time after which the body stores fat. For instance, if you eat the same exact meal at 6 pm or at 8 pm, is one more caloric than the other? No, each meal has the same number of calories. What really matters is the total amount of food and drink you have over the course of a week, or a month or longer, and how much energy you expend during that timeframe. Excess calories will be stored as fat over time, regardless of whether they are taken in during the day or night.
When it comes to eating late at night and the potential for weight gain, there are several considerations:
Portion sizes — waiting to eat could lead to consuming larger portion sizes
Quality of food — after a long day of work or school, a few slices of pizza or a fast burger may seem easier than steamed vegetables and broiled fish
"Mindless snacking" — evenings spent studying, out on the town, or watching TV may lead to excess calories from fast, sugary, on-the-go options
Health concerns — consistent periods of going without food followed by a large meal can negatively impact the interaction between blood sugar and insulin and make you more vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.
http://goaskalice.columbia.edu/eating-night-weight-gain-myth-or-fact


I will restate that your body does not have any clue as to the time, it doesn’t know if it’s 5pm or 11pm.
“Calories in” is all that matters.

 

[tadpole]

My mistake - you didn't. Tadpole did. Consider my remarks aimed at that user, not at you.

Your body does not know it is 7am or 7pm, it knows you are tired, it knows it is dark and so you should be asleep, it knows if you are hungry, it does not know that it Is 7 o'clock and it is time to change the laws of thermodynamics

 

[srw]

Your body does not know it is 7am or 7pm, it knows you are tired, it knows it is dark and so you should be asleep, it knows if you are hungry, it does not know that it Is 7 o'clock and it is time to change the laws of thermodynamics

It knows that you are tired, it is dark and so you are or should be asleep. So there is a possibility that it reacts differently to the food it digests, by diverting the energy into fat storage or into metabolism. Note that word - possibility. I am agnostic. No change to the laws of thermodynamics is involved. But I am sceptical of any explanation that does not recognise the body's diurnal rhythm.

 

[tadpole]

It has yet to be proven, but there is some research that claims that by feeding animals in a time window of 4 hours, the animals change their circadian clock to suit that window, so their metabolism becomes synchronized, their metabolism quickly becomes ‘anticipatory’ and starts to produce not only hormones and chemical responses, but also digestive enzymes for several hours in anticipation of being fed. By restricting outside influences such as non biological clocks (light and darkness) you can reset their circadian clock. So if you are a mouse and always eat between 1900 and 2400hrs you can reset your circadian clock to suit your life style.
If you always eat at 8 pm then roughly 2 to 4 hours before hand, you body become more active, the body has more energy, body temperature increases, there is increased corticosterone secretion (involved in regulation of fuel, immune reactions, and stress responses) and control of gastrointestinal motility (peristalsis or the movement food through the digestive tract by rhythmic contractions), along with production and control of activity of digestive enzymes. You are more alert, more up for life. It is when the cycle is disrupted that problems occur, working in the rest period (as defined by your circadian clock, or sleeping in an activity period.

 

[black'n'yellow]

Tadpole - I notice your font has changed over the last few posts - is that because you are copying & pasting this stuff from google..?

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The French rarely eat before 19:00. The Spanish almost never do. I am considerably more obese than the avg. "insert politically incorrect names for Frenchmen or Spaniards".

I work until 18:00 most days. It take 50 mins to get home. Her indoors, for some trifling reason related to working full-time educating other people's children, never has a meal on the table for me when I get home. (I know it's shocking but there we are). I abhor microwaved ready meals and I like cooking.

How am I meant to eat before 19:00?

 

[Sittingduck]

Eat dinner when it's convenient or when you are hungry. Don't stress over timings - hitting your intake target and consuming the right balance of carb/protein/fat is far more important, imho. This approach certainly worked for me, anyway.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Eat dinner when it's convenient or when you are hungry. Don't stress over timings - hitting your intake target and consuming the right balance of carb/protein/fat is far more important, imho. This approach certainly worked for me, anyway.

My post needed a sardonic smiley.

I eat when I want to, meetings at work allowing

 

[MacB]

Eat dinner when it's convenient or when you are hungry. Don't stress over timings - hitting your intake target and consuming the right balance of carb/protein/fat is far more important, imho. This approach certainly worked for me, anyway.

Listen to SpeedkingDuck this man has climbed the mountain

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Listen to SpeedkingDuck this man has climbed the mountain

I'm listening.