June 25, 2025 • 19 mins
Andrea tackles a long-standing myth about eating after 7 PM and why it’s not as straightforward as many think. Drawing from her experience coaching thousands of women, she breaks down the pros and cons of eating later in the evening, from post-workout recovery to emotional eating and metabolism. With a focus on individual needs, daily routines, and the importance of listening to your body, Andrea offers a thoughtful and realistic perspective on when—and why—late-night eating might actually support your goals.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Well, it's officially summertime.
That means the sun is outlonger.
Our kids are out of school.
We're typically staying awake alittle bit later, which also
means that we might be eatingour foods a little bit later in
the evening as well.
I had a client this week ask me,and more so she was saying, you
know, I've heard the advice thatyou should not eat food after 7
p.m.
for years and years, and sheasked what my opinion on that
(00:22):
is.
So I'm going to give you my veryclear-cut opinion, and that
is...
It depends on your situation.
I'm gonna break it all down.
I promise I'll make it makesense, but I don't think this is
a solid blanket response that weshould be telling everybody.
So I'm gonna give you thedetails today of things to be
aware of and make sure thatyou're doing what's right for
you based on my experience ofcoaching literally thousands of
(00:46):
women and helping them be awareof their needs.
And before we get into today'sepisode, I do wanna point out if
your goal is losing fat orgaining muscle or even
maintaining, Adding an EAA,which is an essential amino acid
supplement, to your routine isgoing to be very helpful.
I did talk about an EAA lastweek in the podcast, so if you
(01:07):
want to jump back and learn alittle bit more about that.
But they are amazing for helpingprotect muscle from being broken
down if you're in a caloriedeficit.
They're amazing for helpingprotecting muscle from being
broken down if you're injured oryou're not moving as much
because that muscle starts toatrophy.
It's also very effective forbuilding building muscle and
(01:28):
having protein synthesis andfueling that process because it
gives you the amino acids youneed to actually build muscle.
So it's a perfect supplement toadd in, especially if you do not
feel like your protein intake ison par.
And I know in the summertime,we're go, go, go.
And especially while we'retraveling, it's hard to get your
protein intake in.
So that's also why this is asupplement that I continue to
(01:50):
take because it helps support myprotein and it helps support
building muscle.
The best news is you can use mylink and get 20% off and you can
either do a one-time purchaseand that's going to give you the
10% off or if you do asubscription for every month,
it's going to give you that 20%off.
You don't even have to do everymonth.
You could do every other.
They have a couple options everytwo months.
(02:10):
But you go to GetKion, that'sK-I-O-N dot com slash simple.
Again, GetKion, K-I-O-N dot comslash simple to help support and
maintain the muscle you have andare trying to build.
My name's Andrea Allen, and I ama mother of four girls under
seven, a wifey to a mountainman, a personal trainer, and a
(02:33):
nutrition coach.
I love all things women's healthand fitness, but let's face it,
the fitness industry iscomplicated, and it's not built
for the everyday mom.
There's so much conflictinginformation, and you're busy,
and you don't have time tofigure it out.
I hate feeling confused andoverwhelmed, so I have made it
my mission to simplify healthand fitness while creating a
welcoming, realistic, andempowering home for like-minded
(02:56):
women.
I'm happy you're here.
And I hope you stay a while.
(03:23):
So first of all, I do want tosay that it is a myth that food
eaten after 6 p.m., 7 p.m.,whatever time you choose, is
turning to fat.
That's not how the body works.
That is a myth that food justturns to fat.
Your body all of a sudden at 7p.m.
doesn't say, oh my gosh, it's 7p.m., let's switch our digestive
modes.
Everything is now fat.
(03:44):
It just doesn't work that way.
Like, our bodies are smarterthan that.
So it's really important tofocus more about the overall
daily intake than the exact timeyou're eating.
But I do think the time you'reeating does play a role, which
is what I'm going to explaintoday.
So we're going to talk about thepros and cons of eating after
seven when you should and whenyou shouldn't.
(04:06):
So here are the pros.
If you are someone who works outat night, you need to eat food
after your workout.
This is actually very importantfor building muscle.
After your workout, your musclesare broken down.
They need building blocks tohelp create that protein
synthesis.
So if you're someone who trainsin the evening, then this advice
(04:27):
isn't actually great for youbecause you're actually slowing
your process of building muscle,which is slowing down your
ability to speed up yourmetabolism.
So if you're in a situationwhere you need to train at
night, because not everyone cantrain in the morning, and the
last thing I want is someone tosay, well, just because I train
at night, I can't have apost-workout meal because that's
incorrect.
(04:47):
So if you work out in theevening, after you work out, you
need to still have somethingwith protein and or carbs in it.
It doesn't matter if it's pastseven.
This is a post-workout mealbecause you need those supplies
to be able to repair the muscleand to help with the growth
hormone activity, which is goingto happen during deep sleep.
sleep that evening if you go tobed with nothing in your tank
(05:11):
after you worked out you've gotno building blocks to push you
towards your goals so you doneed to eat something there i'm
not saying you need to eat aheavy big meal but a
post-workout meal isn't that bigit's literally maybe a protein
shake and a simple carb it's notmassive it's more of a snack so
you do need to be eatingsomething there i don't want you
(05:32):
to skip not eating simplybecause you've heard that rule
if Again, you need food afteryour workout.
That is a pro.
That is when you do need thefood.
My second pro for people whoshould possibly be eating later
in the evening is if you aresomeone who is incredibly busy
during the day.
(05:53):
So oftentimes when I'd work withclients, they would be, you
know, emergency room nurses orhave a job where they're on the
go.
And during the day, they're likeeating little bits of bars in
their pockets and all kinds ofthings.
Oftentimes these clients wouldcome to me and say, well, you
know, I finally got off work.
I worked a seven to seven shift.
They barely ate anything duringthe day.
And then they feel like, well, Ican't eat anything now because
(06:15):
I'm outside of the window.
You're not supposed to eat afterseven, quote unquote.
That's the rule we hear.
This is not helpful in thosesituations.
Yes, obviously we don't wanna behaving massive meals later in
the evening, but you have toremember that you have to have
enough food to fuel your totaldaily energy expenditure.
(06:36):
So even if you're trying to loseweight, if you are consistently
incredibly busy during the day,and this isn't even just for
people with busy jobs like that.
I've seen this happen to momswhere they have a solid
breakfast and then all of asudden they start running
errands and then they've gotsoccer practice and all these
activities later and they don'tget a lot of food in the middle
of the day and then it becomeslate and they feel like they
(06:56):
can't eat.
And I encourage them, no, Iwould rather have you have
dinner because what happens inboth of those situations is if
you are consistently assumingthat you can't eat any food past
7 p.m.
but you're not eating enoughfood during the day, then what's
happening is you're going toslow down your metabolism
because of metabolic adaptation.
(07:16):
When someone is consistentlyunder eating like that, and it
doesn't even have to be arestriction on purpose But as
I've talked about, metabolicadaptation slows down the
metabolism.
And then in my case, when I'mcoaching someone, I have to
reverse diet them where I haveto slowly increase their food
intake.
Also, if you are not eatingenough food and your goal is
putting on muscle, you're notgoing to see those changes no
(07:37):
matter how hard your workout isif you don't have the building
blocks.
So if you are in a situationwhere you are busy all day,
where you have a job where youcan't eat very much, then it's
not logical sound advice forthat That rule of not being able
to eat after 7 p.m.
to actually work for you becauseyou haven't had enough calories
during the day.
(07:58):
You don't want to be undereating on a regular basis and
fall into calorie restrictionthat is too deep.
So you do want to eat, even ifit's 7 p.m., you do want to eat
dinner at that point to makesure that your body is getting
enough food.
If you are drastically under thefood intake that you need based
on your activity and yourworkout, no matter what time you
(08:20):
eat, your body is gonna utilizethat food because it needs it
because it's gotta stay aboveyour basal metabolic rate.
That is the rate at which youburn food, basically the rate at
which you use food if you werelaying on your bed and doing
nothing, just blinking youreyes, your heart working, your
lungs pumping, all of thosethings.
So for those people, I don'tthink it's incredibly sound
(08:44):
advice is to say don't eat afterseven because they may be in a
situation where during the daythey could only eat maybe a
thousand calories and now it's 7p.m.
and they're scared to eat.
That's going to hurt theirmetabolism and their goals for
building muscle, which helpswith fat loss in the long run.
So I would encourage thosepeople to have still a meal when
they get off work because that'swhen you have to let the logic
(09:06):
of eating enough food outweighjust the time restriction.
The second piece to this is ifyou are in a situation where you
are busy all day or you have ajob like that, if you then try
to avoid food in the evening, itcan also very commonly lead to
binging later, yo-yo dieting, oreven after like two or three
days of that, just overdoingyour food intake because your
(09:27):
body doesn't have the suppliesit needs to literally do its
basic activities for that basalmetabolic rate.
And when you're not eatingenough food, your body is smart
and its job is to protectitself.
So it will actually start...
which means breaking down yourmuscle to use as energy.
So all of those are an exampleof when you need to let your
(09:48):
total food amount outweigh theamount time of day you are
eating it.
Obviously, you don't want to eatthese massive meals, but you
want to eat something becauseyou need to get a little bit
more food intake.
And then if you are eating laterin the day, obviously, you need
to have some awareness of yourproteins, fats, and carbs and
trying to make that mealbalanced and not overly heavy in
(10:08):
just carbs or just fat.
One last thing to think aboutwhen we're talking about if you
are busy during the day or justaren't eating a ton during the
day and then eating later atnight is if this is a behavior
you can change because sometimesit just takes a a little bit of
planning.
Sometimes if you're someone whois stuck running errands all
day, it takes packing somesnacks and some other things so
(10:29):
that you're getting more food inearlier in the day.
That can be helpful.
So it's not always just saying,well, I can't eat during the
day, but trying to adjust whereyou can and make the situation
better.
If you can, food prep some foodto bring it with you.
But as I mentioned, there aresome situations where that's not
an option.
There are some jobs where that'snot an option.
And that's where you have tothink critically if you still
(10:51):
should be coming home And havingsome food so you're not under
eating.
But if you are in a situationwhere you're just not adjusting
your habits, so you're noteating a ton during the day and
then you're heavy loading yourfood at night, that's not
beneficial.
So you will want to thinkthrough how can I meal prep or
how can I get food in earlierduring the day.
So just think through yourpersonal situation when making
(11:12):
that choice.
Like I mentioned that late inthe night, if there's not enough
building supplies, your bodyactually breaks down muscle.
So when we have something laterin the evening, if our goal is
building muscle, it actuallyprevents that from happening.
So if later in the evening, ifyou're feeling hungry and you
have a protein-rich meal orsnack, then it can help reduce
(11:34):
that muscle breakdown byproviding amino acids overnight.
So if your goal is buildingmuscle in the evening, you might
want to have something that is aslow digestion protein like
casein and an example of caseinis cottage cheese that's
something that's going to begreat night so sometimes you'll
see people where they have theirprotein treat at night that can
(11:54):
be very effective for buildingmuscle and they're probably not
having that before seven o'clockthey could be having that at
seven eight o'clock but it is avery highly rich protein item
that is just going to kind ofhelp them repair their muscles
overnight so that can be veryeffective The last thing I want
you to think about when it comesto if you should be eating after
7 p.m.
is your relationship with food.
(12:16):
If you have a very unhealthyrelationship with food and you
have really intense food rules,whether you are hungry past 7
o'clock or not, it can make youfeel guilt and shame, and I
wouldn't follow this rule.
I would work on fixing yourrelationship with food before I
focused on really strict dietrules about when you should eat
and shouldn't eat.
The number one thing that I haveto fix before I can get someone
(12:39):
to make progress with actuallylongevity and long-term results
when it comes to a client is Ihave to improve their
relationship with food.
If you do not improve yourrelationship with food, whatever
success you have will beshort-lived because you don't
see food as fuel.
You see it as the enemy.
And until I can break thatmindset with someone, they will
(13:00):
continue to spin their wheels.
So if you are someone who feelsthat way, I think that you
shouldn't have that rule.
I think you should really focuson seeing food as and paying
attention to how you're feelingon the inside.
So long story short, eatingafter 7 p.m.
is not inherently bad.
It's just depending on yoursituation and what you need and
(13:20):
also being aware of doing itmindfully, like I suggested with
the higher protein snack in theevening and how that can help
with muscle repair in the night.
It really does matter more aboutyour total daily intake, how
much food you're eatingthroughout the day, and your
nutrient quality food and yourmeal composition of your
proteins, fats, and carbs morethan just the time alone, more
(13:41):
than just 7 p.m.
7.01, things aren't goingdownhill, okay?
So you got to remember that.
Okay, now let's talk about thecons of eating past 7 p.m.
because there is definitely sometruth to this statement.
But as I said, whether youshould or shouldn't do it
depends on your situation.
So it's common that later in theevening, people tend to eat in
excess of calories.
They've already met their totaldaily energy expenditure.
(14:04):
That's the amount of food theyneed to just maintain all the
things that they're movingduring the day.
They've already hit that foodintake.
And then later in the night,they're just snacking out of
habit.
This is a type of situationwhere you wouldn't want to eat
in the evening.
If you are eating enough all daylong and you are just eating at
night out of habit, not out ofneed for your body, then yeah,
(14:26):
you might not want to be eatingafter 7 p.m.
because you might just be doingit out of habit.
Secondly, not only are peopledoing it out of habit, they
mindlessly snack more oftenbecause this tends to be when
people are watching shows orsome people are playing games or
whatever it is and they're notpaying attention to the amount
of food going in their bodybecause they're doing something
to relax at the same time and itcauses you to eat even more food
(14:51):
because you're not aware ofwhat's going on.
Not only do we tend to be athigher risk for overeating in
the evening, we are also at ahigher risk of emotional eating
in the evening.
So I think sometimes thinkingabout our coping skills,
thinking about why we're doingthings is really important as
well, because we know that foodis a coping skill.
So if you emotionally eat,chances are you are more likely
(15:12):
to do it in the evening and nothave control over that.
So it's important to think thatthrough and think about what
other coping skills we can haveand not just lean into food,
especially in the evening ifwe've already eaten.
enough food for our needs duringthe day.
Now, while having small snacksand balanced meals later in the
evening, especially for buildingmuscle, can be beneficial and it
(15:33):
can even help people with musclerepair in the evening.
On the flip side, if we arehaving very large, heavy meals
that are really high in fats orreally spicy late at night, that
actually disrupts our digestionand makes our quality of sleep
worse.
So this causes your body tobasically be in digestive mode
instead of restorative mode foryou to sleep.
(15:56):
So that is when eating later inthe night is not beneficial.
If you're eating these massivemeals super late, you might not
sleep as well, which is going toaffect your ability to put on
muscle to feel good the next dayto work out and to do some of
those things the next day.
Digesting a lot of food reallylate at night can also elevate
your cortisol hormone, which isyour stress hormone.
So it's also important to thinkabout if you're having really
(16:18):
big meals on a regular basislate at night that that can be
stressful on your body if yoursituation is one where you don't
need to be eating a meal in theevening when it's later.
There's also some research thateating really big meals or
really late in the evening canhinder your circadian rhythms.
So your circadian rhythm is whatwakes you up in the morning and
helps you fall asleep at night.
(16:38):
And typically when it wakes youup in the morning, that is when
our insulin sensitivity is mostoptimized.
It expects for food earlier inthe day and it kind of starts to
slow down with the melatonin atnight.
So it's important to thinkthrough some of those things
when you're deciding if youshould be eating in the night or
if you don't really need to andyou're doing it out of habit.
The last thing to consider ifyou should be eating later in
(17:01):
the evening or not is when isyour bedtime?
For example, if someone'sbedtime is at midnight or even
11 p.m., depending on thescenario, then a later meal for
them is going to look verydifferent than for someone whose
bedtime is 9 p.m.
So it's all really relative toyour routine.
I remember I had a friend whoworked shift hours and she
(17:22):
wasn't able to come home fromwork until 1 a.m.
and go to bed, but she tried tofollow this rule of not eating
past 7.
And I explained to her that 7p.m.
was not late considering whather typical routine was, that
she couldn't go to bed until 1a.m.
So technically, a meal at 10 or11 was actually kind of normal
because she didn't go to beduntil later.
(17:44):
Obviously, we want normalsleeping windows, but that's not
the scenario for everyoneindependent If you have kids who
are awake or you're in differentsituations with jobs, it's
important to take into accountwhen you go to sleep and how
long it's been since you ateearlier because sometimes people
might eat dinner at 5.30 andthen if they don't go to bed
till 11, they might get hungryin the night instead of just
(18:06):
having like a higher proteinsnack or a light balanced meal
that can be beneficial beforethey go to sleep for muscle
growth.
They try to avoid it and thenthey end up binging or having
something they shouldn't justbecause they're hungry because
it's been so long.
such a long gap since theyactually ate because their
bedtime is later.
So this is where you have tologically think through your
(18:26):
life.
If you are in a situation whereyou can move your bedtime
forward and then you can moveyour dinner forward, that's
always going to be probably thebest choice.
But if you have a job orsituation where that's not
possible and you are not able togo to bed until extremely late
and you really can't changethat, thinking through when you
eat your last meal is going tomake a difference because if
(18:47):
you're not going to bed tillreally late and you cannot
change that, there's nobehavioral change.
There's nothing you can do basedon your circumstances, then
eating a little bit later of ameal is going to be fine because
there's still going to be acouple hours before you go to
bed.
So there you have it.
Should you be eating past 7p.m.?
UNKNOWN (00:00):
?
SPEAKER_00 (19:05):
It depends on you.
It depends on your situation.
If you're training late, ifyou're busy during the day, what
time your bedtime is, all ofthose things play a role.
And it's important to be awareof our own situations to decide
whether we should follow, quoteunquote, fitness rules or
whether they don't make sensefor us.
Because the truth is, mostthings aren't black and white.
There's a lot of gray.
(19:26):
And when we understand the grayand we apply some of these
rules, again, quote unquote, ithelps us understand if they're
useful or not, because in somecircumstances they can be, and
in other circumstances they'renot, and they can actually cause
a lot of problems.
So you're going to have todecide for you if eating past 7
p.m.
is a good idea or a bad idea.
All right, that's it for today.
(19:48):
As always, you're doing so muchbetter than you think you are.
We'll chat next week.
Well, it's officially summertime.
That means the sun is outlonger.
Our kids are out of school.
We're typically staying awake alittle bit later, which also
means that we might be eatingour foods a little bit later in
the evening as well.
I had a client this week ask me,and more so she was saying, you
know, I've heard the advice thatyou should not eat food after 7
p.m.
for years and years, and sheasked what my opinion on that
(00:22):
is.
So I'm going to give you my veryclear-cut opinion, and that
is...
It depends on your situation.
I'm gonna break it all down.
I promise I'll make it makesense, but I don't think this is
a solid blanket response that weshould be telling everybody.
So I'm gonna give you thedetails today of things to be
aware of and make sure thatyou're doing what's right for
you based on my experience ofcoaching literally thousands of
(00:46):
women and helping them be awareof their needs.
And before we get into today'sepisode, I do wanna point out if
your goal is losing fat orgaining muscle or even
maintaining, Adding an EAA,which is an essential amino acid
supplement, to your routine isgoing to be very helpful.
I did talk about an EAA lastweek in the podcast, so if you
(01:07):
want to jump back and learn alittle bit more about that.
But they are amazing for helpingprotect muscle from being broken
down if you're in a caloriedeficit.
They're amazing for helpingprotecting muscle from being
broken down if you're injured oryou're not moving as much
because that muscle starts toatrophy.
It's also very effective forbuilding building muscle and
(01:28):
having protein synthesis andfueling that process because it
gives you the amino acids youneed to actually build muscle.
So it's a perfect supplement toadd in, especially if you do not
feel like your protein intake ison par.
And I know in the summertime,we're go, go, go.
And especially while we'retraveling, it's hard to get your
protein intake in.
So that's also why this is asupplement that I continue to
(01:50):
take because it helps support myprotein and it helps support
building muscle.
The best news is you can use mylink and get 20% off and you can
either do a one-time purchaseand that's going to give you the
10% off or if you do asubscription for every month,
it's going to give you that 20%off.
You don't even have to do everymonth.
You could do every other.
They have a couple options everytwo months.
(02:10):
But you go to GetKion, that'sK-I-O-N dot com slash simple.
Again, GetKion, K-I-O-N dot comslash simple to help support and
maintain the muscle you have andare trying to build.
My name's Andrea Allen, and I ama mother of four girls under
seven, a wifey to a mountainman, a personal trainer, and a
(02:33):
nutrition coach.
I love all things women's healthand fitness, but let's face it,
the fitness industry iscomplicated, and it's not built
for the everyday mom.
There's so much conflictinginformation, and you're busy,
and you don't have time tofigure it out.
I hate feeling confused andoverwhelmed, so I have made it
my mission to simplify healthand fitness while creating a
welcoming, realistic, andempowering home for like-minded
(02:56):
women.
I'm happy you're here.
And I hope you stay a while.
(03:23):
So first of all, I do want tosay that it is a myth that food
eaten after 6 p.m., 7 p.m.,whatever time you choose, is
turning to fat.
That's not how the body works.
That is a myth that food justturns to fat.
Your body all of a sudden at 7p.m.
doesn't say, oh my gosh, it's 7p.m., let's switch our digestive
modes.
Everything is now fat.
(03:44):
It just doesn't work that way.
Like, our bodies are smarterthan that.
So it's really important tofocus more about the overall
daily intake than the exact timeyou're eating.
But I do think the time you'reeating does play a role, which
is what I'm going to explaintoday.
So we're going to talk about thepros and cons of eating after
seven when you should and whenyou shouldn't.
(04:06):
So here are the pros.
If you are someone who works outat night, you need to eat food
after your workout.
This is actually very importantfor building muscle.
After your workout, your musclesare broken down.
They need building blocks tohelp create that protein
synthesis.
So if you're someone who trainsin the evening, then this advice
(04:27):
isn't actually great for youbecause you're actually slowing
your process of building muscle,which is slowing down your
ability to speed up yourmetabolism.
So if you're in a situationwhere you need to train at
night, because not everyone cantrain in the morning, and the
last thing I want is someone tosay, well, just because I train
at night, I can't have apost-workout meal because that's
incorrect.
(04:47):
So if you work out in theevening, after you work out, you
need to still have somethingwith protein and or carbs in it.
It doesn't matter if it's pastseven.
This is a post-workout mealbecause you need those supplies
to be able to repair the muscleand to help with the growth
hormone activity, which is goingto happen during deep sleep.
sleep that evening if you go tobed with nothing in your tank
(05:11):
after you worked out you've gotno building blocks to push you
towards your goals so you doneed to eat something there i'm
not saying you need to eat aheavy big meal but a
post-workout meal isn't that bigit's literally maybe a protein
shake and a simple carb it's notmassive it's more of a snack so
you do need to be eatingsomething there i don't want you
(05:32):
to skip not eating simplybecause you've heard that rule
if Again, you need food afteryour workout.
That is a pro.
That is when you do need thefood.
My second pro for people whoshould possibly be eating later
in the evening is if you aresomeone who is incredibly busy
during the day.
(05:53):
So oftentimes when I'd work withclients, they would be, you
know, emergency room nurses orhave a job where they're on the
go.
And during the day, they're likeeating little bits of bars in
their pockets and all kinds ofthings.
Oftentimes these clients wouldcome to me and say, well, you
know, I finally got off work.
I worked a seven to seven shift.
They barely ate anything duringthe day.
And then they feel like, well, Ican't eat anything now because
(06:15):
I'm outside of the window.
You're not supposed to eat afterseven, quote unquote.
That's the rule we hear.
This is not helpful in thosesituations.
Yes, obviously we don't wanna behaving massive meals later in
the evening, but you have toremember that you have to have
enough food to fuel your totaldaily energy expenditure.
(06:36):
So even if you're trying to loseweight, if you are consistently
incredibly busy during the day,and this isn't even just for
people with busy jobs like that.
I've seen this happen to momswhere they have a solid
breakfast and then all of asudden they start running
errands and then they've gotsoccer practice and all these
activities later and they don'tget a lot of food in the middle
of the day and then it becomeslate and they feel like they
(06:56):
can't eat.
And I encourage them, no, Iwould rather have you have
dinner because what happens inboth of those situations is if
you are consistently assumingthat you can't eat any food past
7 p.m.
but you're not eating enoughfood during the day, then what's
happening is you're going toslow down your metabolism
because of metabolic adaptation.
(07:16):
When someone is consistentlyunder eating like that, and it
doesn't even have to be arestriction on purpose But as
I've talked about, metabolicadaptation slows down the
metabolism.
And then in my case, when I'mcoaching someone, I have to
reverse diet them where I haveto slowly increase their food
intake.
Also, if you are not eatingenough food and your goal is
putting on muscle, you're notgoing to see those changes no
(07:37):
matter how hard your workout isif you don't have the building
blocks.
So if you are in a situationwhere you are busy all day,
where you have a job where youcan't eat very much, then it's
not logical sound advice forthat That rule of not being able
to eat after 7 p.m.
to actually work for you becauseyou haven't had enough calories
during the day.
(07:58):
You don't want to be undereating on a regular basis and
fall into calorie restrictionthat is too deep.
So you do want to eat, even ifit's 7 p.m., you do want to eat
dinner at that point to makesure that your body is getting
enough food.
If you are drastically under thefood intake that you need based
on your activity and yourworkout, no matter what time you
(08:20):
eat, your body is gonna utilizethat food because it needs it
because it's gotta stay aboveyour basal metabolic rate.
That is the rate at which youburn food, basically the rate at
which you use food if you werelaying on your bed and doing
nothing, just blinking youreyes, your heart working, your
lungs pumping, all of thosethings.
So for those people, I don'tthink it's incredibly sound
(08:44):
advice is to say don't eat afterseven because they may be in a
situation where during the daythey could only eat maybe a
thousand calories and now it's 7p.m.
and they're scared to eat.
That's going to hurt theirmetabolism and their goals for
building muscle, which helpswith fat loss in the long run.
So I would encourage thosepeople to have still a meal when
they get off work because that'swhen you have to let the logic
(09:06):
of eating enough food outweighjust the time restriction.
The second piece to this is ifyou are in a situation where you
are busy all day or you have ajob like that, if you then try
to avoid food in the evening, itcan also very commonly lead to
binging later, yo-yo dieting, oreven after like two or three
days of that, just overdoingyour food intake because your
(09:27):
body doesn't have the suppliesit needs to literally do its
basic activities for that basalmetabolic rate.
And when you're not eatingenough food, your body is smart
and its job is to protectitself.
So it will actually start...
which means breaking down yourmuscle to use as energy.
So all of those are an exampleof when you need to let your
(09:48):
total food amount outweigh theamount time of day you are
eating it.
Obviously, you don't want to eatthese massive meals, but you
want to eat something becauseyou need to get a little bit
more food intake.
And then if you are eating laterin the day, obviously, you need
to have some awareness of yourproteins, fats, and carbs and
trying to make that mealbalanced and not overly heavy in
(10:08):
just carbs or just fat.
One last thing to think aboutwhen we're talking about if you
are busy during the day or justaren't eating a ton during the
day and then eating later atnight is if this is a behavior
you can change because sometimesit just takes a a little bit of
planning.
Sometimes if you're someone whois stuck running errands all
day, it takes packing somesnacks and some other things so
(10:29):
that you're getting more food inearlier in the day.
That can be helpful.
So it's not always just saying,well, I can't eat during the
day, but trying to adjust whereyou can and make the situation
better.
If you can, food prep some foodto bring it with you.
But as I mentioned, there aresome situations where that's not
an option.
There are some jobs where that'snot an option.
And that's where you have tothink critically if you still
(10:51):
should be coming home And havingsome food so you're not under
eating.
But if you are in a situationwhere you're just not adjusting
your habits, so you're noteating a ton during the day and
then you're heavy loading yourfood at night, that's not
beneficial.
So you will want to thinkthrough how can I meal prep or
how can I get food in earlierduring the day.
So just think through yourpersonal situation when making
(11:12):
that choice.
Like I mentioned that late inthe night, if there's not enough
building supplies, your bodyactually breaks down muscle.
So when we have something laterin the evening, if our goal is
building muscle, it actuallyprevents that from happening.
So if later in the evening, ifyou're feeling hungry and you
have a protein-rich meal orsnack, then it can help reduce
(11:34):
that muscle breakdown byproviding amino acids overnight.
So if your goal is buildingmuscle in the evening, you might
want to have something that is aslow digestion protein like
casein and an example of caseinis cottage cheese that's
something that's going to begreat night so sometimes you'll
see people where they have theirprotein treat at night that can
(11:54):
be very effective for buildingmuscle and they're probably not
having that before seven o'clockthey could be having that at
seven eight o'clock but it is avery highly rich protein item
that is just going to kind ofhelp them repair their muscles
overnight so that can be veryeffective The last thing I want
you to think about when it comesto if you should be eating after
7 p.m.
is your relationship with food.
(12:16):
If you have a very unhealthyrelationship with food and you
have really intense food rules,whether you are hungry past 7
o'clock or not, it can make youfeel guilt and shame, and I
wouldn't follow this rule.
I would work on fixing yourrelationship with food before I
focused on really strict dietrules about when you should eat
and shouldn't eat.
The number one thing that I haveto fix before I can get someone
(12:39):
to make progress with actuallylongevity and long-term results
when it comes to a client is Ihave to improve their
relationship with food.
If you do not improve yourrelationship with food, whatever
success you have will beshort-lived because you don't
see food as fuel.
You see it as the enemy.
And until I can break thatmindset with someone, they will
(13:00):
continue to spin their wheels.
So if you are someone who feelsthat way, I think that you
shouldn't have that rule.
I think you should really focuson seeing food as and paying
attention to how you're feelingon the inside.
So long story short, eatingafter 7 p.m.
is not inherently bad.
It's just depending on yoursituation and what you need and
(13:20):
also being aware of doing itmindfully, like I suggested with
the higher protein snack in theevening and how that can help
with muscle repair in the night.
It really does matter more aboutyour total daily intake, how
much food you're eatingthroughout the day, and your
nutrient quality food and yourmeal composition of your
proteins, fats, and carbs morethan just the time alone, more
(13:41):
than just 7 p.m.
7.01, things aren't goingdownhill, okay?
So you got to remember that.
Okay, now let's talk about thecons of eating past 7 p.m.
because there is definitely sometruth to this statement.
But as I said, whether youshould or shouldn't do it
depends on your situation.
So it's common that later in theevening, people tend to eat in
excess of calories.
They've already met their totaldaily energy expenditure.
(14:04):
That's the amount of food theyneed to just maintain all the
things that they're movingduring the day.
They've already hit that foodintake.
And then later in the night,they're just snacking out of
habit.
This is a type of situationwhere you wouldn't want to eat
in the evening.
If you are eating enough all daylong and you are just eating at
night out of habit, not out ofneed for your body, then yeah,
(14:26):
you might not want to be eatingafter 7 p.m.
because you might just be doingit out of habit.
Secondly, not only are peopledoing it out of habit, they
mindlessly snack more oftenbecause this tends to be when
people are watching shows orsome people are playing games or
whatever it is and they're notpaying attention to the amount
of food going in their bodybecause they're doing something
to relax at the same time and itcauses you to eat even more food
(14:51):
because you're not aware ofwhat's going on.
Not only do we tend to be athigher risk for overeating in
the evening, we are also at ahigher risk of emotional eating
in the evening.
So I think sometimes thinkingabout our coping skills,
thinking about why we're doingthings is really important as
well, because we know that foodis a coping skill.
So if you emotionally eat,chances are you are more likely
(15:12):
to do it in the evening and nothave control over that.
So it's important to think thatthrough and think about what
other coping skills we can haveand not just lean into food,
especially in the evening ifwe've already eaten.
enough food for our needs duringthe day.
Now, while having small snacksand balanced meals later in the
evening, especially for buildingmuscle, can be beneficial and it
(15:33):
can even help people with musclerepair in the evening.
On the flip side, if we arehaving very large, heavy meals
that are really high in fats orreally spicy late at night, that
actually disrupts our digestionand makes our quality of sleep
worse.
So this causes your body tobasically be in digestive mode
instead of restorative mode foryou to sleep.
(15:56):
So that is when eating later inthe night is not beneficial.
If you're eating these massivemeals super late, you might not
sleep as well, which is going toaffect your ability to put on
muscle to feel good the next dayto work out and to do some of
those things the next day.
Digesting a lot of food reallylate at night can also elevate
your cortisol hormone, which isyour stress hormone.
So it's also important to thinkabout if you're having really
(16:18):
big meals on a regular basislate at night that that can be
stressful on your body if yoursituation is one where you don't
need to be eating a meal in theevening when it's later.
There's also some research thateating really big meals or
really late in the evening canhinder your circadian rhythms.
So your circadian rhythm is whatwakes you up in the morning and
helps you fall asleep at night.
(16:38):
And typically when it wakes youup in the morning, that is when
our insulin sensitivity is mostoptimized.
It expects for food earlier inthe day and it kind of starts to
slow down with the melatonin atnight.
So it's important to thinkthrough some of those things
when you're deciding if youshould be eating in the night or
if you don't really need to andyou're doing it out of habit.
The last thing to consider ifyou should be eating later in
(17:01):
the evening or not is when isyour bedtime?
For example, if someone'sbedtime is at midnight or even
11 p.m., depending on thescenario, then a later meal for
them is going to look verydifferent than for someone whose
bedtime is 9 p.m.
So it's all really relative toyour routine.
I remember I had a friend whoworked shift hours and she
(17:22):
wasn't able to come home fromwork until 1 a.m.
and go to bed, but she tried tofollow this rule of not eating
past 7.
And I explained to her that 7p.m.
was not late considering whather typical routine was, that
she couldn't go to bed until 1a.m.
So technically, a meal at 10 or11 was actually kind of normal
because she didn't go to beduntil later.
(17:44):
Obviously, we want normalsleeping windows, but that's not
the scenario for everyoneindependent If you have kids who
are awake or you're in differentsituations with jobs, it's
important to take into accountwhen you go to sleep and how
long it's been since you ateearlier because sometimes people
might eat dinner at 5.30 andthen if they don't go to bed
till 11, they might get hungryin the night instead of just
(18:06):
having like a higher proteinsnack or a light balanced meal
that can be beneficial beforethey go to sleep for muscle
growth.
They try to avoid it and thenthey end up binging or having
something they shouldn't justbecause they're hungry because
it's been so long.
such a long gap since theyactually ate because their
bedtime is later.
So this is where you have tologically think through your
(18:26):
life.
If you are in a situation whereyou can move your bedtime
forward and then you can moveyour dinner forward, that's
always going to be probably thebest choice.
But if you have a job orsituation where that's not
possible and you are not able togo to bed until extremely late
and you really can't changethat, thinking through when you
eat your last meal is going tomake a difference because if
(18:47):
you're not going to bed tillreally late and you cannot
change that, there's nobehavioral change.
There's nothing you can do basedon your circumstances, then
eating a little bit later of ameal is going to be fine because
there's still going to be acouple hours before you go to
bed.
So there you have it.
Should you be eating past 7p.m.?
UNKNOWN (00:00):
?
SPEAKER_00 (19:05):
It depends on you.
It depends on your situation.
If you're training late, ifyou're busy during the day, what
time your bedtime is, all ofthose things play a role.
And it's important to be awareof our own situations to decide
whether we should follow, quoteunquote, fitness rules or
whether they don't make sensefor us.
Because the truth is, mostthings aren't black and white.
There's a lot of gray.
(19:26):
And when we understand the grayand we apply some of these
rules, again, quote unquote, ithelps us understand if they're
useful or not, because in somecircumstances they can be, and
in other circumstances they'renot, and they can actually cause
a lot of problems.
So you're going to have todecide for you if eating past 7
p.m.
is a good idea or a bad idea.
All right, that's it for today.
(19:48):
As always, you're doing so muchbetter than you think you are.
We'll chat next week.
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