I'm on the Shred diet by Dr. Ian Smith and today I messed up a little. I've always heard that you shouldn't go to bed hungry and you should eat something, even something small, after a workout. Today I jogged for 45 minutes, thinking that I was supposed to eat one more snack for the day. Turns out that I wasn't allotted any more food, but I ate about 45 cals worth of a snack so that I wouldn't go to bed hungry right after working out.

What are your thoughts? What would you have done?

The advantage to eating after the workout relates to the increased metabolism you gain. I am not up to date on the Shred Diet, but if it was me, I would only eat if I was hungry as I prefer not to sleep on a full stomach.

My 2 cents...
I dont know anything about the Shred Diet either, but when I started calorie counting it took a lot of tweaking to working out how much my body needed. A few nights I made the mistake of not eating enough and would wake up in the middle of the night with ungodly hunger pains. I would have to grab a bowl of cereal then head back to bed. Over time Ive corrected this by intaking slightly more durring the day so I dont feel starved.

Regardless of what diet you are on-if you are hungry-I mean seriously hungry then eat, and be sensible about it. Dont load up on junk food. About the only time this wouldnt apply if is you were well over 400/500lb and your doc put you on a strict diet plan type thing. If you are still worried about having a snack try drinking a glass of water first and letting it sit for like 10min or so, see how you feel and then if you still need to eat something then do so.

I know nothing about the Shred Diet. However, I feel that if you're hungry after your workout, you should eat something. Listen to your body. It knows best.

I have read that eating something high in protein is good for after exercise. I don't think 100 calories or less will ruin your diet, if it were that easy everyone would be overweight.

I don't know anything about the Shred Diet, but I don't think it's bad to go to bed hungry. I go to bed hungry quite a lot since I just hate eating late at night.

I'll feel legitimately hungry, but the thought of eating late makes me feel sick, so I just don't.

Ditto. In fact, oddly enough, I seem to dream a lot more if I eat too close to bedtime; I wake up feeling as if I didn't have a restful sleep. That has been the biggest deterrent to me eating close to bedtime. Also, even if I feel hungry or crave something before bedtime, I find that if I can resist eating, I feel fine in the morning, not hungry at all until later (e.g., 8:30 - 10:00).

If you're hungry after a workout, I guess it's fine to eat, but I would not eat after a workout just for the sake of eating. I never could understand why so many people seem to think that it's important to eat something after working out (I'm not referring to anyone here---just people in general). To me, that's counterproductive if I'm trying to create a calorie deficit. Why did I bother spending time burning off all those calories if I'm only going to eat them back? However, you only consumed less than 50 calories, and that's barely anything, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I don't believe you ever need to "eat for the sake of eating." If you don't feel like eating, you're obviously not about to die of starvation, so I see no reason to force yourself.

F.

i've read a number of studies that all point towards a small amount of carb and protein (protein containing leucine important) is good for muscle repair and growth. less than 100 cal split evenly is enough to trigger this. it has certainly helped me to get stronger quicker doing this.

not everyone cares about that kind of thing, though.