Re: Well, duh.

Znep wrote:

NASA had a problem when getting middle-aged, podgy scientists, geologists etc, fit enough for space travel. They found out that it wasn't *what* you eat, but *when* you eat. In other words, your heart slows down when you sleep, so the calories in a large late meal, get little chance to get burned off.

Funny - I've heard that it has been disproven. The only thing that matters is the difference between how much calories you consume and how much you hfr. It's not like it's a "burn now or keep forever" kind of deal when you eat.

That is my view - unless someone has come up with a way of cheating the physics of total energy input[1] minus total energy expenditure equals energy stored or lost in the form of fat and carbohydrate. When the input and output happens, and how close to the input the putput happens, makes no difference to the sum.

[1] OK, absorption, for the pedants.
Can be a big difference. The amount you absorb from a meal, against the
notional calories of the meal measured by burning in a bomb calorimeter,
can vary substantially. You can take two otherwise identical burgers,
for instance, and one served medium-rare has about 20% lower calories
than a well-done one, in terms of what's absorbed (net). The
calorimeter would show near-identical values.
Yes, but the amount you use of that avaiable energy doesn't depend on the time of day at which you eat it.

Except that the amount you burn depends on your basal metabolism, which
does vary diurnally.


Does it? Basal Metabolic Rate is expressed in terms of energy expenditure per day. Proper BMR cannot be measured in "normal" activity anyway, eg it requires a moderately long fast beforehand, so in some ways is something of an artificial measure.

And anyway, whether or not it does have a diurnal variation, the important sum is still input minus expenditure over a full cycle rather than over part of that cycle. As an analogy, you don't calculate your monthly budget based on income and expenditure for a few days either side of payday. Well, you might, but you would probably start running into problems fairly quickly....

--

JonG (Self -Preservation Society No. 37 3/4)

The Shed: A Shelter from Chicks on the Wing
.

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