Dinner Time

[ehyatt]

Can anybody tell me what the rule is for what time you should eat dinner. Somewhere I heard that if you are trying to lose weight that you should eat dinner a certain number of hours before you go to bed. I know that lots of people (me too) have the problem of eating right before bedtime and that it has just added to our weight gain. The reason that I am asking is that I really like to to work out before I eat dinner so that my body is still burning calories while my food is digesting. It just seems that my workout is taking up a lot of my evening time. I am always eating at 8:30 or 9pm and that just seems too late to me.

[susieokla]

Hello-

I have heard it both ways, that you shouldn't eat after 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening and I've also heard that it doesn't matter what time of day you eat so, I'm not sure which is true.

I'm like you though, usually during the week days I don't eat dinner until 8:00 or 8:30 at night but I've tried to keep my dinners pretty light.

[ehyatt]

Exactly. Most of the time it is 5:30 or 6pm when I get home. If I stop and fix a meal at that time, I won't have as much motivation to go workout. Plus my Pilates classes are at 6pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and my son has Boy Scouts on Mondays. It is just so hard to fit everything into my schedule as it is, much less worry about what time I need to do it at-lol!

[TStreich]

What I have always heard and "try" to follow is don't eat anything within 3 hours of going to bed. So if your going to bed at 10 pm then 7 pm you don't eat anything the rest of the night. So as long as you eat supper before then your fine. This is a great rule if you can follow it cuz night time is when most people do their snacking infront of the TV.

[ehyatt]

That sounds about right. It is just hard because I am trying to work out 1 hr every night and it seems like I am getting dinner started too late every evening. I will try to do the treadmill in the morning to cut down on my some of my evening workout, maybe that will help. Plus, I am trying to make meals that serve 4 (I just cook for my son and myself), so that we will have leftovers the next night and it will cut down on prep time.

[Patty_Ann]

Originally Posted by TStreich

What I have always heard and "try" to follow is don't eat anything within 3 hours of going to bed. So if your going to bed at 10 pm then 7 pm you don't eat anything the rest of the night. So as long as you eat supper before then your fine. This is a great rule if you can follow it cuz night time is when most people do their snacking infront of the TV.

This is what I heard about what time to stop eating in the evening. I always have dinner served by 5 - 5:30 at the latest. This allows me to be able to snack in the evening before my deadline time. I have set a goal to not eat anything after 7pm. So far so good!

[ehyatt]

That is awesome Patty Ann! I am going to have to figure out a way to make this happen. Right now I am cooking dinner in the oven....

[Patty_Ann]

Originally Posted by ehyatt

That sounds about right. It is just hard because I am trying to work out 1 hr every night and it seems like I am getting dinner started too late every evening. I will try to do the treadmill in the morning to cut down on my some of my evening workout, maybe that will help. Plus, I am trying to make meals that serve 4 (I just cook for my son and myself), so that we will have leftovers the next night and it will cut down on prep time.

I can understand the frustration on being so busy. I think that if you adjust your workout you will do fine. Try doing the treadmill in the morning like you said for 3 days and see how it works out. We used to eat late, too...I have changed dinner time to 5 - 5:30 at the latest. It works out best for all of us. There have been times when we had to do something right after the kids arrived from school, or husband getting home from work - when we have a late dinner it has to be small. This past week I haven't had to worry about it. I hope that you are able to find out a way to get around this.

[ehyatt]

I am definitely going to work on this. I like your idea of if it has to be late, then it should be a small meal. Thanks!

[Patty_Ann]

Originally Posted by ehyatt

I am definitely going to work on this. I like your idea of if it has to be late, then it should be a small meal. Thanks!

No problem!