I am up at 5:00 AM and have a banana as a pre workout snack. From there I eat about every 2.5 hours. My old snacking time was (and IS) about 3:30/4:00 in the afternoon. I get ravenous! I have tried to avoid that state by eating a large "snack" before leaving work so I am not starving when I get home, but it doesn't matter. I have to eat a full meal at 4:00. I experimented one day last week when the family was on their own for dinner. I ate my meal at 4:00 and then did not eat for the rest of the evening. Well, considering I go to bed at 9:00, it was just fine!! I didn't need to eat again because it felt like dinner!

So how weird is it to make my family eat at 4:30? It fits with our schedule, honestly. DH does spin class at 5:30 and the kids have their evening activities. They can have an evening snack later. We're pretty early to bed and early to rise, so why do I push us to have that normal eating hour of 6:00?

Thoughts?

Why is that so strange? I don't think so at all. It's really whatever works for you family. I actually know other families that have dinner ready by 4:00 and then people eat when they can. With kids having after school activities and stuff, sometimes it has to be early.

I think eating by the clock is sometimes a big problem. On the weekends, we have a very late breakfast, but at 12:00, I always think "lunchtime!" no matter if I am hungry or not. This weekend, I just ate when I got hungry, which was more like 2:30. That put me too close to dinner, so I just had a snack instead.

I have a very hard time not eating when I get home at 4:45. even though dinner is usually around 6:30.

We eat dinner pretty much after we get home and I start cooking- so around 5? Who says dinner HAS to be at 6?

Dinner isn't at 6:00 exactly per se, but definitely after 5:30. I don't know. My body is very routine but my schedule isn't!! Even 4:30 wouldn't work particularly well because then when the kids are playing that's awfully early to call them in, especially as the light outside lessens.

So you guys don't think it's selfish to push this on my family to suit me huh?

I think that dinner can be anytime that works for you!

Couldn't they go back out to play after dinner?

I usually start dinner around 4:30 or 5:00 because most days I have to get to bed before 9pm in order to be back up at 4:30am for work. Plus now that I'm seriously counting calories, I'm dang hungry by 4pm wanting my dinner.

You'd think so, but in our neighborhood it's not that easy. There aren't that many kids so when we have kids over it's like from 3:30 to 6:30 and then a late dinner. It's a parent drop off/pick up type situation. I wish I could just send the kids out to play.

Yep, precisely.

I actually think it's a good idea. My two teen daughters used to get off the bus at 3 pm competely ravenous and then snack like crazy between 3 and 5 which left them NO APPETITE for dinner (we eat late-- 7:30 or sometimes 8:00). I finally started giving them a "meal snack" around 4, basically dinner, then another lighter snack around 8 when my hubby and I ate. It worked well.

I also get up at 5 AM, but I'm not usually working out that early. I have a full breakfast & then head to the gym on my work-from-home days, or directly into the shower on my commute-to-work days. I snack at 10 AM. I'm ravenous by noon. I go directly to the gym after work & don't have dinner till 8 PM or 8:30 PM, or occasionally at 9 PM, if I've had to work a little later, so I have two snacks in the afternoon. I go to bed around 10:30 PM. (And pay for this by getting really sleepy around 3 PM most days.) As long as I keep the snacks as actual snacks, I'm okay.

But I have the luxury of making my own schedule, as there's no family involved, and so this is what I've worked out for myself.

It's also the way I have to live to maintain a social life. No one I know around here eats dinner early. They generally work quite late, get off the train late & sometimes go out & have a drink before dinner. Restaurants are pretty busy around here at 7-10 PM.

Well we eat regularly at 4:30. It just works for us - the kids go to bed early so we eat dinner early and then my 2 year old gets a snack around 6:30. I think dinner should be whenever it works best for you!

It's WEIRD!

But hey! Whatever works. We're late eaters and if I had my way, dinner would be around 9PM but the cute boyfriend has other ideas.

I think a lot of Americans are late eaters. I've always been drawn toward the earlier side just naturally. I know I hated the late seating on a cruise we once took!! Oh, how I hated that! Pushing dinner off until 8:00 is so unnatural to me.

I was watching Dr. Oz yesterday and he mentioned the rule "don't eat after 8:00". Then he clarified that rule. He said that for those of us who go to bed on the early side, we should not eat three hours prior to bedtime! That means no eating after 6:00 for me!! And THAT fits quite well with this thread and me wanting to eat earlier! So all in all, I think I'm on the right track. I just have to re-wire my brain.