DIET | DETECTIVE^®

Can you really lose weight by avoiding food after dark? Oprah seems to think so. The talk-show guru says, “You can lose 10 pounds in a month by not eating after 7:30 p.m.” Sounds like an easy plan—just pig out at dinner, then zone out in front of prime-time TV for the rest of the night and wait for the fat to melt away.

 

One teensy problem. With all due respect to Oprah and her presumably well-paid nutritionist, it just doesn’t work like that. There’s no magic time of day when your body stops using calories, and a lack of after-dinner snacks probably isn’t going to cause the calorie deficit you’re looking for.

 

To lose 10 pounds a month, you have to eliminate about 35,000 calories from your usual diet that month. That’s about 1,266 per day. Which leads me to wonder — what was Oprah snacking on?! Twelve hundred calories is a serious late-night snack. Like a quarter of a cheesecake. Or a 16-ounce porterhouse.

 

In other words, Oprah’s Golden Rule of Dieting isn’t going to work on its own. Chances are, Oprah was also watching her diet during the day (or, more accurately, having her diet watched for her by her personal chef). She’s burning additional calories with her personal trainer. She has an entire staff of people paid to keep her in shape—it’s not as simple as shutting the freezer door at dusk.

 

Of course, there is one glimmer of truth in her simple-as-that diet tip. Setting a time limit on your noshing may stop you from eating dessert or cracking open a can of Pringles before bed. And those little shortages add up.

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