The FastDay Forum

In a comment in a recent IDM article, a reader mentioned that his life-long evening hunger problem disappeared when he reduced the level of blue light exposure in the evening.

A Google search does reveal science supporting the idea. So, for those who get the munchies and that tend to spend their evenings on their PCs, there's a simple way for you to find out.

Here's a link to one of the many articles that discuss the blue light effect:

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/n ... our-health

And here's a link to a free PC-based blue light blocker app:

https://justgetflux.com/

I'd installed this app' some time ago based on a friend's suggestion regarding the blue light affect on sleep - that it tends to keep you awake. (I didn't notice any difference, but then I very rarely have problems with sleep.)

I've no idea how you'd do this with other sources of evening blue light like the TV or overall room lighting. Seems that, if this works, you'd be motivated to find out!

Hello @ADFnFuel, not only is the following link very interesting (and I strongly believe in IF for weight loss) and quite easy to understand:

https://idmprogram.com/the-critical-importance-of-meal-timing-for-weight-loss/

but, if you check out the fourth comment at the end, you will see that the poster found blue light control in the evenings really helped to control hunger.

Thank you, lovemyparrot. Yes, that article is my source. I was contemplating posting it under a separate topic title after lunch, but now I don't need to! Had I known earlier I could've stayed for dessert!

I will look at the links from you both, thanks! I do know about blue light and sleep, but haven't found that it makes any difference to me (tho unlike ADF, I am a relatively poor sleeper, most of the time - though interestingly, my sleep has been better - well, I have had more and don't lie awake thinking for as much of the time - since the accident - perhaps the body's need for sleep to help with recovery is stronger than the "mental" issues that keep me awake!!).

I guess I should access the links first, before commenting further. I will be interested to see what the subjects did instead of viewing screens. For me, I think it's my inactive hands that correlates with eating when I don't need - I will eat just as much reading a paper book as I do when watching the TV or reading on my iPad. And if I am typing on my (blue light) screen, that also stops me eating.

But I should look at the links!!

Thanks for that visual Sassy. Dimly lit popcorn bookmarks, grease stains everywhere and crumbs from ear to ear...

Okay, links now accessed! The one from ADF was information dense and I don't think I concentrated enough to take it all in. I think it mainly concerned reducing the amount of blue light, but not changing the activity the person was doing? And it was relating blue light to a number of (negative) things - to explore those further requires looking at more links. Which I haven't yet done.

LMP's article was easy to read and seems to be suggesting that an early eating window is optimal. And it may well be. But what a change that would require to our lives! The only decent meal my son has each day is the evening meal. I don't think I have heard of anyone across the life of this forum who has an early eating window. In fact, there has been a lot of support and push for the opposite - i.e. not eating breakfast. (Not that I am a supporter of that, as you probably know.) I guess one problem I have with the article is that eating issues are often not hunger related - I could eat a days worth of cals by 2pm but I don't think that would stop the evening snacking. Cos I am eating for non-hunger reasons and am quite capable of still eating when I know I am not hungry - and worse, even can be feeling full but still eat.

But I do agree with what the article says about the change in eating patterns across society, and the increase in snacking. And agree that the snack food industry bears a lot of responsibility for that. I have written before in this forum, as have others, about how we ate when young - mainly home cooked food, including plenty of white carbs and sugar, but little snacking - and almost no child was overweight (unlike now). Mothers were perhaps a more "comfortable" size (relatively speaking than their children), but few were obese. The diet industry also shares a lot of the blame for middle aged women getting bigger. I do wonder too about the impact of insulin resistance, i.e., for people who are strongly insulin resistant (that may not be the correct terminology) then an Increase in food consumed, especially poor quality food, may lead to their metabolism going haywire and them putting on extreme amounts of weight, without them necessarily overeating a large amount.

All that being said, I don't doubt that reducing blue light and reducing your eating window and eating earlier rather than later are all good things!

Thanks for the links!