“Don’t eat after 7pm…”

Posted by: quarterlifegirl on: February 5, 2010

• In: Diet
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I’m going to go ahead and rant for a bit here. For one reason or another, lately I’ve been finding myself getting into the topic of diet and exercise with various friends of the family. The first (or second) thing I hear from them is “you should stop eating at 7pm.” It always pisses me off and makes me want to blow up in their faces about how that’s a myth….but seeing that they probably wouldn’t care and would think I’m crazy, I’ll just vent right here.

First of all, it doesn’t matter what time of day you eat….calories are calories. If you eat a Baconzilla burger at 10am, it’s not going to make you less fat than if you eat it at 8pm, all other factors equal. If it’s 1,000 calories at night, it will still be 1,000 calories in the morning.

The only reason this “myth” ever came to be is to help people with common dieting and eating problems. Why? Once everyone’s settled at home, after they’ve eaten dinner, people tend to forget that they’re eating. Thus midnight snacking, a harmless bite from that cake, etc. THAT is why they recommend you stop eating at 7pm.

On the other hand, if I’ve eaten two meals before in the day, and I can’t have dinner before 7pm, it DOESN’T mean I should go without dinner because that magical time in the day has come that you can’t eat. You should still complete your meals for the day!

So to all of you that feel compelled to tell me to stop eating after 7pm….I DON’T REALLY CARE! This isn’t my first go around with “dieting” and I think I have an understanding on how it works…..if you consume more than you burn off you’re going to gain weight. It doesn’t matter if I do it all at 6am or 10pm. It will have the same effect.

That is all.