Let’s say I needed to consume 2500 calories per day to maintain my weight.
Now, what if I didn’t eat all day (while maintaining the same level of activity), but just sat down at night, ate my 2500 calories worth, then watched TV and promptly fell asleep?
Would that work, or would a long period of being sedentary affect the way my body processed the calories?
Just curious. I’m not about to try it.
In theory, you’ll maintain your weight (or at least lose weight slowly), but get fatter. Some people have tried this and liked the results they got (cf. the warrior diet), but they were probably pretty picky about what they ate and some other stuff.
According to the book I just got and have been reading (“Get with the Program, Guide to Fast Food & Family Restaurants” by Bob Greene), yes it does.
It says that eating a majority of your calories at one meal causes an insulin spike, causing your body to store fat.
It also says your metabolism seems to have a natural “arc” that appears to decline near bedtime and by that time it has nearly shut down. Also when you don’t eat your body goes into survival mode and begins storing fat for emergency usage.
Besides, everything I’ve ever read on healthy diets has said that spacing out meals and snacks evenly is the most healthy way to lose or maintain your weight so that your metabolism is burning at a more consistent rate.
Although it refers to a slightly different question than the one you asked, I’ll point out that “nibbling” over the course of the day versus eating the same amount in say, three, meals, is the better of the two tactics, at least from a “metabolic” perspective.
In other words, all other things being equal, if one person consumed 2400 calories over a day by nibbling at the rate of 100 calories per hour, and another had three meals of 800 calories each, the former person will wind up with better cholesterol levels, insulin sensitivity, etc.
Here is the reference. Wow, it’s hard to believe it was published close to twenty years ago. Seems like yesterday. (“I grow old . . . I grow old . . . I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled”)
Oh, good. My current seven-meals-per-day strategy has hope …