Here's one other myth that I wanted to point out:
- You have to eat only bland food to lose weight
While most of my meals were simple and plain, I would, at various times, choose to eat palatable food. So along this 4-month journey, I had cake, cookies, candy, pretzels, fast food, and whatever else.
First of all, this stuff obviously isn't healthy. Second, it's not like I was free-basing junk food all the time. But if situations came up, or I wanted to break the monotony of my regular eating, then I would go ahead and eat whatever I wanted. The key was that I still ate these foods to satiety, versus going on a binge.
One other interesting thing I found out about palatable food was that the timing is important. Eating palatable food earlier in the day was somehow less problematic than eating it later in the day. This goes along with a new study that shows the same thing.
There is actually a circadian connection here. I was just getting into this research last month before I got busy at work. But palatable food eaten at the wrong time (later in the day) can actually affect circadian rhythms. So in an indirect way, the problems with palatable food are circadian-driven.
Interesting…. doing some digging, and I’m wondering if this is the title of the study to which you are referring? “Meal timing and composition influence ghrelin levels, appetite scores and weight loss maintenance in overweight and obese adults”.
That is the original study that the article I linked to above refers to, yes.
But there were some older studies I was looking at in regards to palatable food and circadian rhythms.
I noticed the same thing. Eating a nice big pizza early in the day, around midday has absolutely no effects on how I feel the next day. Whereas eating it in the evening would be detrimental for any sport I want to do early the next day.
Also incorporating one cheat day per week, where I eat whatever I want before 1 pm helps release all that cravings tension
I’m fascinated by the circadian stuff. I thought it was mostly just light but then Seth Roberts posted about his theory of faces and early waking from eating breakfast and now I’m hearing more about meal timing affecting it. That would be an interesting post in itself.