
Is one diet as good as another? - ph0rque
http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/03/04/is.one.diet.good.another.u.i.study.says.no.and.tells.you.why
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tocomment
I wish someone would tackle that eating a night myth. I can't imagine if you
eat the same thing at 2PM vs 11PM, you'll gain more weight in the latter. I
always cringe when people tell me that.

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jadence
Yes, it is a myth. Calories in versus calories out. It's as simple as that.

There _may_ be some small differences in how efficiently your body digests
food at night than during the day but 2pm vs. 11pm is an incredibly minor
optimization. It's like optimizing your array structures when you should be
using a hash. The only timing optimization I've heard of which has some
scientific backing is the glycogen/metabolic window thought that's exploited
for those trying to gain weight.

I think the reason you often hear about the "don't eat at night" advice is
that it's easy to do which is what people want to hear. Most people will
fallaciously rather follow the advice of "Eat ice cream at 2pm instead of
11pm" than the advice of "Don't eat ice cream at all."

The reason that "don't eat at night" will sometimes appear to work is that
people will naturally eat less when you cut out a huge block of time in which
they can't eat.

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trapper
Whoever taught you that has poor understanding of biochemistry. Ever heard of
futile cycles? Heat dissipation in the mitochondria? Hormonal effects of food?
Anabolic/catabolic foods? Let alone the short, medium and long terms effects
on the transcriptome.

The major thing you don't understand is that what you do now has effects on
your gene transcription over the next few months. Small changes can make huge
differences not just in the short term, but longer term as well - in terms of
your bodies energy efficiency (which you want to decrease if you are wanting
to lose weight) and hormonal state (testo/corto relationships et al).

There is tons of research on timing of nutrients. Transcriptome effects of
nutrients. Short term hormonal effects. Thermic effect of foods. Etc etc. If
one nutrient causes a change in energy out, then that nutrient has less of an
effect than one that doesn't. Therefore, some nutrients affect energy balance
differently than others.

Tell me this if you still don't believe me: are there any foods or
combinations of foods/timing that may cause a statistical difference in energy
output in the short, medium and long term in humans?

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jadence
Sorry trapper but your entire post here wreaks of someone trying to "bully"
the reader. You throw out a lot of esoteric terms w/ little to back it up.

That said - are we even arguing about the same thing? You responded to my post
that addressed the "eating at night" myth and you're going off on effects that
food has "over the next few months."

~~~
trapper
Perhaps. I am sick of this "Yes, it is a myth. Calories in versus calories
out. It's as simple as that." being portrayed by people as a fact. It's just
not so simple, and it's wrong.

I could write long winded responses with references. The problem is you end up
explaining most of biochemistry along with it, as the rabbit hole is truly
deep. And people still don't get it, because most people even with undergrad
degrees in biochem don't (you don't get to see the rabbit hole until you reach
postgrad at most unis and read tons of papers).

It's kind of like trying to explain why functional programming is better than
OO to someone who just uses excel.

None of the terminology used should be esoteric if you have studied
biochemistry. Apologise for the tone, it is really frustrating seeing someone
promote the same old myth.

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vaksel
Diet or no diet...it doesn't really matter. What matters is putting in the
effort to work out every day. Most workout diets will have you eat way more
than you do right now anyways.

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Oxryly
Not all calories are equal. Protein FTW. :)

