Eating At Night, Calorie Intake, Longevity and Gaining Weight
October 25th 2006 06:16
Eating At Night, Calorie Intake, Longevity and Gaining Weight
You can look at it any way you like, but I’m one of those people who is against eating large, carbo-loaded foods at night. Some people believe that whatever your caloric intake is throughout the day, you’ll burn the same amount of calories if you ate most of it in the morning, grazed all day, or had a large dinner. I just don’t believe this.
After you’ve eaten a meal, the body needs time to digest, and you burn many more calories moving around, or watching TV (just being awake generally) then if you go straight to bed after dinner. According to Madsci, you burn 73 calories for each hour of sleep. You can burn double the calories just sitting and talking on the phone. So if you eat dinner earlier, and spend a few hours pottering about before you hit the sack, your dinner will be more thoroughly digested and calories burned off. This method, I believe, is better than eating late and going to bed straight after, if you are interested in weight loss.
If this hypothesis isn’t enough to make you eat earlier, just consider two other reasons why eating later at night is bad for your dietary habits:
1) If you have dinner late, this usually means you haven’t eaten in a while and so you’ll typically eat more. And also due to the lateness, its much easier picking up unhealthy, take away food that’s instantly ready to eat compared to preparing something in the kitchen.
2) Another issue which you should learn to prevent is the thoughtless snacking that can occur throughout the evening. Getting into ice-cream after dinner, and then a packet of chips or popcorn when watching a movie, or biscuits with your evening cup of tea are all sure to add a fair amount of calories to your daily allowance. Especially considering the fact that these after-dinner-snack foods typically have high sugar content.
Different people need different amounts of calories to get them through the day. But many of us consume more than we actually require which essentially equates to becoming overweight. On the opposite end of the spectrum, calorie restriction is defined as consuming only enough calories to fuel your vital systems in order to keep your body alive. This of course leads to symptoms such as drowsiness, fatigue and earlier burning out from the simplest forms of exercise. But this diet is apparently the only proven way to increase your maximum (not average) lifespan, occurring through lowering cholesterol, fasting glucose, and blood pressure. But who would want a longer life if it means not being able to enjoy the food you love? This mentality is why I’ll never be a model!
So like I always say, keep it simple and eat only when you’re hungry, and until you’re satisfied – not full. You don’t need a special calculation to determine how much food your body needs (but if you want, use the Basal Metabolic Rate) - just use your common sense.
You can look at it any way you like, but I’m one of those people who is against eating large, carbo-loaded foods at night. Some people believe that whatever your caloric intake is throughout the day, you’ll burn the same amount of calories if you ate most of it in the morning, grazed all day, or had a large dinner. I just don’t believe this.
After you’ve eaten a meal, the body needs time to digest, and you burn many more calories moving around, or watching TV (just being awake generally) then if you go straight to bed after dinner. According to Madsci, you burn 73 calories for each hour of sleep. You can burn double the calories just sitting and talking on the phone. So if you eat dinner earlier, and spend a few hours pottering about before you hit the sack, your dinner will be more thoroughly digested and calories burned off. This method, I believe, is better than eating late and going to bed straight after, if you are interested in weight loss.
You burn 73 calories for each hour of sleep..
If this hypothesis isn’t enough to make you eat earlier, just consider two other reasons why eating later at night is bad for your dietary habits:
1) If you have dinner late, this usually means you haven’t eaten in a while and so you’ll typically eat more. And also due to the lateness, its much easier picking up unhealthy, take away food that’s instantly ready to eat compared to preparing something in the kitchen.
2) Another issue which you should learn to prevent is the thoughtless snacking that can occur throughout the evening. Getting into ice-cream after dinner, and then a packet of chips or popcorn when watching a movie, or biscuits with your evening cup of tea are all sure to add a fair amount of calories to your daily allowance. Especially considering the fact that these after-dinner-snack foods typically have high sugar content.
Different people need different amounts of calories to get them through the day. But many of us consume more than we actually require which essentially equates to becoming overweight. On the opposite end of the spectrum, calorie restriction is defined as consuming only enough calories to fuel your vital systems in order to keep your body alive. This of course leads to symptoms such as drowsiness, fatigue and earlier burning out from the simplest forms of exercise. But this diet is apparently the only proven way to increase your maximum (not average) lifespan, occurring through lowering cholesterol, fasting glucose, and blood pressure. But who would want a longer life if it means not being able to enjoy the food you love? This mentality is why I’ll never be a model!
So like I always say, keep it simple and eat only when you’re hungry, and until you’re satisfied – not full. You don’t need a special calculation to determine how much food your body needs (but if you want, use the Basal Metabolic Rate) - just use your common sense.
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