How many hours do you usually space before bed time? Is too many hours going to backfire on me? I've been stopping after 5pm and sometimes 6pm even though I might not actually fall asleep from anywhere between 10pm to midnight. I was thinking it would help boost me a little since I have so far to go but I'm afraid the amount of time might be doing damage for when I actually do eat in the morning. I drink a ton of apple cider vinegar diluted in water to suppress cravings to eat at night and I drink 2oz of aloe vera juice each morning along with 2 fish oil capsules and sometimes a cup of coffee. I've never been into "breakfast food" so I usually eat a cliff bar to hold me over until I get an early lunch from somewhere like subway or something sensible. I'll usually have another cliff bar or two after that throughout the work day and then I'm not hungry at all until around 7pm-9pm so I just end up chugging apple cider vinegar and focusing intently on jersey shore episodes hoping jwoww ends up knocking sammi out of her jumpsuit and heels, etc.

Also, I won't be able to go back to the gym for a couple of weeks when my student loans come in and I can afford a new semester membership (and a new ipod replacement...i have no clue how anyone can work out without music), so I was thinking if I just cut back earlier it would make up for being less active and when I go back to sweatin it out with fergie ferg I will be more lax on eating closer to 7. Thoughts anyone?


ALSO I know it's normal for people to have nightmares when they eat before bed but ever since I stopped eating before bed (I'm a lifelong late night snacker) I have the most intense, realistic nightmares that wake me up every. single. night. Is this possibly withdrawals?

I aim to eat dinner at 5:30 (or at least start assembling it..) but definitely make sure i'm not eating after 7:30. Since I upped my calories from 1200 to 1600 I haven't been hungry after this time at all. I don't think you would be hungry if you balanced out your meals better. Cliff bars are not that great for you (although they were my choice of bar the last time I tried dieting.) Maybe if you were working out intensely. They do keep you full, but I think if you were well rounded, even without exercise you wouldn't be as hungry. Also, have you ever thought about exercising outside? I don't know how the weather is where you're at.. but at least you would be doing something! There's also really cheap Mp3 players you can get nowadays (I'm feelin' you on the needing music thing.) I got this super cute, tiny, black 4 gig mp3 player at Office Depot for like 15 dollars last year that clipped right onto my shirt. It was so small and much less bulky than my iPod.

Thats a problem I have, when I stay up late like this (1:44am in NY) I tend to snack on junk food. =(

I eat my last meal around 6, 6:30, sometimes as late as 8 but not often.

I save calories throughout the day for a hot milky drink in the evening but don't generally eat more food.

If you're so hungry in the evening that you're drinking quarts of vinegar, maybe you should move your meal time a bit later (opinion is divided as to whether how late you eat makes a difference or not) AND what you eat at that meal ~ does it contain enough good stuff to make you feel full?

I generally eat most of my calories during the day. Lunch is my main meal. I get home from work about 5:30, and will have something light, under 300 calories, before 7 when I go to the gym. I usually go to bed about 10.

Can you try to switch the bars for some more "real" food? They're handy to have around, but it sounds like you're getting a lot of your calories from them.

Honestly, it just doesn't matter that much in the greater scheme of things. The critical factor in losing fat is that you eat fewer calories than you burn. If a "no food after x pm" rule helps you avoid late-night snacking and thereby helps you create a caloric deficit, great. But if that's the point of the rule, there is no magic number for X -- it can be flexible, depending on when you have a snacking issue.

The research on meal timing is ambiguous at best. Even if there is an effect, it's small. Relative to the big factors -- how many calories you eat, and how many calories you burn -- it just isn't worth stressing about. IMO.

//b. strong,
Kim

I eat up to the second I fall asleep if I have the calories, and I lose weight on a pretty high calorie level.

i only see a reason to be capping off your eating at a certain time if it's to stave off snacking habits -- i know a lot of people who are binge eaters tend to do it at night, so it helps them to cut off their eating after a certain time. otherwise, i think it'll be safe for you to eat at any time, so long as you're adhering to whatever plan you're on and you're still losing weight.

calories in, calories out. that's all it is.

I stop when I'm out of Points for the day. Usually around 7 or so.

I have dinner around 6 and then I usually save my snacks for between 8 and 9. I'm an evening eater so I generally plan my day with 300 to 400 calories worth of "snacks" in the evening. I plan my whole day the night before so I know what I'll be getting and I just eat that and don't snack on anything else.

If you need help dealing with cravings and hunger you could try hot tea. I drink it between meals and it really helps me. Just sounds better then apple cider vinegar.. =)

For a while I didn't eat after like 6 or 8 at the latest because I thought it'd impede my weight loss. But I found that if I just don't eat anything to salty or carby, my daily weigh in isn't affected at all.

Like, I've been staying up until 4 with my job recently, so I eat breakfast at noon, lunch at 3, dinner around 6 or 7, and then save a few hundred calories for 2-3 snacks. I'll eat low cal popcorn, drink decaf coffee with cocoa in it, eat apples and cooked mushrooms (not mixed together, lol), stuff like that. And it keeps me full and hasn't slowed my weight loss in the slightest.

I usually eat an hour or so before bed. Sometimes it does end up being right before bed because I didn't realize I was going to go to bed or procrastinated on making myself something to eat. If I don't eat shortly before bed I can't sleep all through the night and if I wake up in the night, I'll just want to eat.

In regards to cliff bars switching for real food, I am extremely lazy and unoriginal when it comes to packing and planning, and am mostly in a car driving kids all day - not my own but it's my job. Cliff bars come in a ton of different flavors and keep me full and sane while I have screaming children in the backseat. I try to get one good solid meal in for the day and I drink 1 kombucha tea drink a day to help sustain my appetite, digestion, etc. I'm thinking of switching one of my morning cliff bars to 2 or 3 hard boiled eggs since I can take them anywhere and they're the easiest and quickest solution substitute. The cut off time for food really helps me keep things under control, I'll probably just have to push it back an hour later. The nightmares are the real doozy to come out of all of this.