For those people counting calories, it can sometimes be confusing to know “where” to put them. For example, if you eat something at midnight, which day do those calories go towards? This was a question I got asked from a CGB reader.

Question from A: Hello there, I am recovering from an eating disorder and  have recently incorporated exercise into my diet and I am finding my self counting calories again. While I am trying to stop this activity, I have a question:  when does my body’s daily clock stop? What time does my body restart counting its daily calories? I mean if it’s midnite and I have a late dinner, which day do those calories count for?

 Answer from Martha:  I understand how it can sometimes be confusing as how to account for calories eating at certain off times of the day, such as midnight. To answer your question, I will say that your body has no set “clock”.  In general, if you have an increase of 3500 calories you will eventually gain a pound. Conversely if you have a decrease of 3500 calories (whether it be from increased food, increased exercise or a combo of both), you will eventually lose a pound. This increase or decrease can occur over days or weeks. Since this is kind of abstract, we generally plan eating plans using calories on a daily basis to keep things simple.  For example, I might place someone on a 1500 calorie eating plan. It is easier to do it this way than to tell someone to eat 10,500 calories a week (This is 1500 calories x 7 days in the week!).  What is most important is your caloric average. So if you were to eat something at midnight, it could really count for either day - as long as your daily average was 1500 calories. Maybe on Tuesday you had 1750 but on Wed you had 1300. Your average is 1500 calories.

However, I do want to caution you and all the CGB readers, that it is not a great idea to get into the habit of really overeating on one day and then “starving” the next day to make up for the overeating episode the previous day. This can turn into a binge/starve cycle. It is ok for someone to do this on occasion (if you have been following Esther’s weight loss journey, you will see that I have been talking about this), but not on a regular basis. A, I would especially caution you from doing this since you have a history of an eating disorder.

A,  hopefully you are working with a therapist and/or nutritionist who can guide you.  If so, have you worked out an eating plan to follow? If not,  I would recommend that you meet at least once with a registered dietitian who specializes in E.D to get an individually tailored meal plan. You just want to make sure you don’t fall into a pattern of being too obsessed with calories. Although I had previously stated that our bodies don’t have rigid clocks as to when we should consume calories and when a “new day” starts, I still feel that you should try to consume your calories (i.e. 1400 just to pick a number) during the day. You can save a small amount to have for a late night snack if you like. It is not a great idea to get into the habit of saving a lot of calories to eat late a night. Best of luck to you in your continued recovery from your E.D.  Thanks for reading CBG!

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