Is your eating and sleeping schedule of essence when it comes to weight loss?

Question

I'm trying to lose weight and I go to the gym consistently. I do an hour long workout when I do. But I haven't been seeing any results, instead I've gained 7-8 pounds. so the thing is.. I can't fall asleep before 5 am sometimes... sometimes even 7 am. And I wake up at noon. Im a freelancer and my job is such that it allows me to have such an erratic sleeping pattern. Im never hungry when I wake up and tend to not eat until 3-4 pm. And even when I do its a very small amount. I drink coffee and eat a sandwhich around 6-7 pm and dinner at 10-11 pm. So people have been telling me that my poor lifestyle is the reason for weight gain. Is that true? Because i'll make a serious attempt at changing my sleeping and eating patterns if this actually is the culprit..
Also any other weight loss tips will be appreciated..
Im about 144 pounds... trying to get to 120.

Levin · Accepted Answer

What does 'dinner' consist of exactly? :P

What is the reason for going to bed at 5am? You can't fall asleep, why?

I think it's fair to say, that the human body has a certain diurnal rhythms, ie experientially, it feels better if you understand that the body operates most efficiently according to certain patterns of behaviour. Namely, (and this is not necessarily 'scientific', but it's demonstrably true, try it yourself) some essential liver operations come to the fore at night, therefore, don't burden it with digestion before bed. If possible, try to make your last meal your smallest, or at least, don't 'stuff' yourself, for a start. Personally, I try not to eat after 7pm. And if one does so, I wouldn't eat more than 200 calories - This allowance generally keeps me sane. Secondly, if at all possible, try and go to bed not too far after 11pm. Again, the old mantra of, 5 minutes of sleep between 11pm and 1am is better than 2 hours of sleep at any other time... Try it for yourself. The best advice, in my personal view, is to eat 3 regular meals, small to medium sized breakfast, medium to large lunch, medium dinner. A snack or two as hunger dictates. Always chews your food thoroughly to prevent over-eating and to ease the digestion process on the body. Chewing thoroughly is half of your digestion, think about it... Never over-eat, but there's really no need to be hungry either, if you eat the right proportions. Incredibly I read something that those on whole grain and vegetable diets ate more in terms of calories than their American counterparts (who basically eat processed shit, too much extreme foods, sugar, too much poor quality meat and dairy), and yet were infinity slimmer and healthier, this was the China study. How credible this study is of course is debatable, but it goes to show.

I can't believe the level of muddle with regard to the advice on looking after your body. Your body is not a machine. This is a nonsense. It's important to get your body into a 'good feeling space', in order to minimise cravings and emotional eating. Carbs aren't bad for you, as people are suggesting. High GI ones such as refined sugar are what one should avoid in order to avoid 'crashing' and huge sugar spikes, as is over eating.

Every body is different, and of course, I can't be prescriptive in my advice - we're all more ignorant than we realise. The point is, a change of mentality is important with regard to *sustainable* health. It's not just do this or that.

JohnDoe3000 · Accepted Answer

Many people will say yes, but the correct answer is not really. It's simply a matter of caloric balance, that is if you stick to eating the same things in the same amounts and performing the same activities.

redeyemindtricks · Accepted Answer

Actually, the timing of yr meals is *better* suited to weight maintenance.
If yr goal is to lose weight, then, eating a big breakfast is just about the worst mistake you could possibly make.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475137

Basically... Eating a big breakfast is an absolutely horrible idea, except for people who are naturally super slim. For everyone else, a big breakfast causes a blood-sugar crash in the middle of the day, AND makes people more hungry literally all day long (because their stomachs are physically expanded) -- causing them to overeat for the entire rest of the day.

Also, it's been shown pretty conclusively that eating yr carbs *later* in the day promotes fat loss and lean mass retention (see same study).

__

Also -- The other problem with "don't eat at night", for most normal people, is that an empty stomach COMPLETELY RUINS sleep quality. Most people simply don't sleep well on an empty stomach -- and, if they *do* wake up in the middle of the night with cravings, let's just say they aren't exactly going to throw together a salad.

The satiety hormones that are released with a decent-size meal help people sleep better. Also, I mean... common sense, think of how you feel after Thanksgiving dinner. You feel like SLEEPING.

Eating RIGHT before bedtime isn't the greatest idea, since it virtually guarantees that you'll have to get up at least once to go to the restroom... but, for weight and appetite control, it's definitely better to eat most of yr calories close to bedtime.

In fact, if you eat a midnight snack that's mostly protein, then, that has positive results, too:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22330017

EllieLexis513 · Accepted Answer

Yes, I just asked my trainer this a couple days ago because I can't sleep very well. You're eating WAAAAAAAAY too late at night because your body doesn't have time to work off/burn what you ate, plus, you shouldn't be eating bread anyway. Carbs are only to be eaten before noon.

But as far as sleep goes, she said sleep is when your body breaks down the energy from the food for the day and sends it where it really needs to be and repair your muscles from working out. You need to eat when you wake up.

What time are you going to sleep? I'm willing to bet it's mostly what your eating more than anything else.

Anonymous · Answer

You need to figure out some way to reduce the amount of stress in your life. Maybe you may try doing yoga or some kind of light physical activity instead of an intense workout at the gym. Reducing the stress caused by your job may be critical in losing weight.

The second big thing is the type of food you are consuming and when you are consuming it. You may want to consume light meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the meals must be 90% plant-based. Whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Limit meat to a pound a month. Avoid all processed foods, ready-made foods, and restaurant foods. Drink only water, and some water can be extracted in the meals you eat. If you add sugar in coffee, stop it. If it tastes bad without sugar, then stop coffee consumption. Make your own sandwich, and load the whole-grain sandwich with a lot of vegetables, no cheese, and maybe a few pieces of meat directly from a chicken drumstick you've made.

Prettygurl12 · Answer

Your caloric intake is important.

I eat six - seven times a day. I won't dignify them by calling them meals. They're small snacks.

My schedule, when I experienced my best fitness results (I'm hella lazy now) was as follows.
9 am - wake up/eat breakfast
9:30 - walk to class/eat snack on way
11:00 - go to gym
1:00 - leave gym/eat snack
1:30 - class
3:00 - leave class/walk to gym/eat snack
5:00 - leave gym/walk home/eat snack
6:30 - start homework/eat dinner
8:00 - optional bedtime snack

The snacks were like 0-200 calories
The meals were like 300-400 calories

And they were (mostly) healthy things. Except the one day I elected to not go to the gym and just stayed inside and ate half a dozen donuts all day.

And sleep is important because your body likes regularity. My body got in shape almost immediately when I got on a eating/sleeping schedule. I slept from like midnight - 9 every night and ate at the same time every day.

Anonymous · Answer

You don't gain weight you transform your fat in muscle and muscle weight most than fat.
The schedule of your sleep or eat has nothing to do with the things you don't lost weight. You should never eat more than 1500 Kcal per days when you do a diet and sleep 8 hours. 6 minimum.

bcromartie · Answer

Absolutely. Regularity helps a lot! It speeds conditioning.

orphan · Answer

what do you mean you're trying to eat and go to the gym consistently? if you don't do both consistently... you won't get results.. it's that simple

Anonymous · Answer

Is it possible for you to visit a nutritionist?

Is your eating and sleeping schedule of essence when it comes to weight loss?

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