Mama, you can give up this one food myth, enjoy a bowl of ice cream after the kids go down and still lose weight
Have you ever sat down after you’ve put your kids to bed, with a bowl of ice cream and then thought to yourself, is it too late to eat this? I’m not sure where the “rule” don’t eat after 9 p.m. came from, but I do know that if I lived by that rule then I would never get to enjoy a treat without my kids around! I am frequently asked by the mamas in the Macros Made Easy Program if they need to start or stop eating at a certain time in order to optimize weight loss. I always respond with the same answer: No! Food timing doesn’t play that big of a role in weight loss.
I want to debunk this myth for you because holding onto hard and fast rules like food timing could be hurting your weight loss efforts more than helping it! I’m going to teach you when food timing is important and what you actually need to focus on in order to lose weight and keep it off!
Food timing isn’t essential to fat loss
Like I said, meal timing isn’t that important for the average mama. Intermittent fasting and other fads have placed heavy importance on when you eat, but the truth is that it doesn’t make a huge difference in fat loss.
The idea behind the “don’t eat after 9 p.m.” rule is that it gives your body more time to digest your food. This is true! If you eat a huge meal at 11 p.m. then go to bed, and wake up six or seven hours later, you’re going to see a small bump in the scale. But, that isn’t fat gain. It’s just that your body hasn’t completely digested the big meal you ate!
It takes consistent overeating to put on fat. When you see a one to three-pound jump in the scale from day to day you aren’t necessarily gaining weight. It’s just that your body is processing everything it’s gone through. Here are a few reasons why the scale might jump up from day-to-day:
Water intake
Sodium levels
Amount of sleep
Eating outside of normal habits (amount of food, or food timing)
Alcohol consumption
Your body is smart and it’s going to adjust how it processes calories when systems get thrown off, so don’t let small fluctuations in the scale bother you too much!
When to think about food timing
The one time where I tell my clients to really pay attention to food timing is when they’re training for a competition. If you’re doing a body-building competition or a marathon, then you’re going to use your food to fuel and recover your body.
If you workout constantly, then you can also utilize food timing to help fuel your workouts and recover your body!
Pre-workout
A pre-workout meal or snack can help give you the energy you need to hit new goals in your workouts.
If you want to have a full pre-workout meal you should eat about an hour and a half before your workout. You want time for your body to digest some of the meal before you workout. That will give your body time to fuel up so you have energy to burn. If you just want to have a pre-workout snack, then plan to eat it about 30 minutes before your workout.
The other key factor in a pre-workout is eating the right kinds of foods! It’s best to eat high protein and high carb pre-workout. The protein will help fuel you long-term and the carbs will give you quick boosts of energy when you need them!
You don’t want to eat very much fat before a workout because your body will try to spend more energy breaking down the fat you ate instead of burning body fat. A couple of grams aren’t going to hurt you, but try to keep your fat intake lower pre-workout.
The exception to that is if you’re an endurance athlete. Endurance athletes are going to want protein, fat and carbs before training or competing! You need the fat to sustain you long-term!
Post-workout
Post-workout meal timing isn’t as important as pre-workout because you don’t need the fuel to push you through the workout, but you do want to make sure you’re giving your body what it needs for recovery.
As long as you feel good eating right after a workout you can. Some people like to cool down for a bit before eating a bigger meal. But you can always have a snack right afterward if you want.
Again, the most important element is the type of food you eat. Protein and carbs are going to be the most important nutrients post-workout. You need the protein to start repairing the muscles you broke down during your workout. Then the carbs will be used to re-energize you.
Focus on getting the right balance of food
Now that you know that food timing isn’t the end-all-be-all for weight loss success, I want to give you the secret to losing weight and keeping it off.
Balance.
Yep. It’s super simple! When you eat a balanced diet of protein, fat and carbs, or fun food and nutritious foods, you’ll lose weight and you’ll keep it off! You’ll be successful because you don’t feel restricted by all the rules traditional diets give you!
One area I talk to my Macros Made Easy Mamas about when they’re first starting out is to eat the same amount of food consistently. One thing we don’t notice until we really look at our nutrition is how much yo-yo eating we do.
You were probably taught that in order to “indulge” you needed to cut back somewhere else. For example, if you’re going out for your anniversary dinner, then you should starve yourself beforehand so you can splurge later. Or the day after your daughter’s birthday party you need to workout extra hard to undo all the cake you ate.
This thought process leads you to overeat one day and undereat the next. When you do this a couple of times a week, your body never knows when it’s going to have enough food and when it’s going to have to conserve energy, so it just holds onto as much food as it can.
When you start eating the same amount of nutrients consistently, your body can release the fat it’s storing for those under-eating days. You’ll lose weight. And you’ll be able to give your body and mind permission to enjoy food without guilt, share or regret!
Telling you that all you need is a balanced diet is so simple, but most mamas don’t know what balance looks like. You don’t understand how much food your body needs to keep up with your busy life, without overdoing it and gaining more weight.
That’s where my Macros Made Easy program comes into play! Nutritional needs aren’t one-size-fits-all, which is why you need an individual plan that shows you what your body needs! We’ll work together to understand that boundary and create a nutritional plan that fits into your life.
If you’re ready to start living a balanced, healthy life without giving up the food you love or trying to stick to outdated rules, then let’s chat! Schedule a free discovery call today.
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