I've been running around doing things all night - first running out and getting my DF his pizza, then grocery shopping for my "special" meal for tonight also. It took me over 1 1/2 hours just to pick out what I wanted - Johnsonville Beer n Braut and some mustard greens - so I'm cooking them up now. But I know on certain diets they recommend not eating this late. Would it hurt me? I've had about 6 carbs today in everything I've had so far before this.

You'll get different opinions on this, but I think it does. I've recently been getting back into the groove of having 4 hours between my last meal and bedtime and I can feel the difference. I also wake up feeling more refreshed as well as hungry. I am not a breakfast eater but because I wake up hungry, it resets the times of day that I am hungry. The last time I eat is before 8:00 p.m.

Karen

I go, go, go, all day long and I manage to eat three times a day on Fridays. But, my meals are so spread apart. Today, I ate a small breakfast at 8:00 ( 2 ozs of leftover steak and a piece of provolone ). I didn't eat lunch until 2:00 which was a piece of lamb, cauliflower, spinach and cuke salad ( wonderful lunch BTW!!!). Then I taught flute lessons and had a orchestra rehearsal and didn't get home until 9:00 when I had some hot wings and a cup of salad ( not as great as my lunch ).

I don't generally eat this late however, I feel that it is necessary to eat three times a day. I would not do this all the time.

Have a great weekend,

Black57

I find timing to make a big difference in how I feel the next morning. Dinner can be difficult for me though because I work a strange shift, I get up at 2:30am, so bedtime for me is around 7:30pm. I can't always manage to do dinner early enough to have that time to digest before heading off to sleep. My family isn't interested in dinner at 4 in the afternoon. When I do eat my dinner early, and maybe just a very small dinner with family, I feel much better in the morning. This morning is a good example of bad timing, went out to dinner with my boyfriend last night. Chicken ceasar salad, decaf tea with sweet n low, half and half, and water. Then came home and went right to sleep. I feel more sluggish this morning, and the scale (sorry, I am addicted to daily checks) was up 3 pounds!

If you have a relatively "normal" time schedule, then try to stop eating by 9:00P, as a general rule. I try to have dinner by 8:00P, but sometimes it pushes to 9:00P. I usually stay awake two hours after eating (not the four Karen does). I also asked this question when I started out, but because there weren't any set rules in DANDR, I consulted with my sister. She went through gestational diabetes with her last pregnancy. She stopped trying to eat by 8:00P or 9:00P.

I don't know if it has an effect or not, I know because of my schedule, it is just not possible to eat prior to 8pm, I usually am just getting home by then. I do try to stay up at least two hours after I eat, but again, this is not always possible.

I believe some of this must be cultural though. A friend of mine went to Spain recently and they usually have dinner around 10-11pm! and yet she didn't see any Spaniards having any more weight problems than we do. Of course they get that nice "siesta" thing in the middle of the day, while in the US, it's all work, work, work.

My DH does not even get home from work until 7:30 or sometimes even 8:00, and he likes sitting down and relaxing for a few minutes instead of running in the door and eating. So what this means is we often don't eat dinner until 9 or 9:30.
And because I'm a night owl, I quite commonly have a snack even later.

I worried about this, too, but the only alternative was eating separately from my DH, and given the small amount of time we have to spend together, this just isn't an option.

I decided LC has to work with my lifestyle. I've already made a lot of changes - I'm not willing to turn everything upside down! So I just carry on.

The good news is I've lost 26 lbs in nine weeks!

So I don't worry anymore!

Kaillean

I lived in Spain for many years where people often eat at 10 or 11 at night - and they are generally much slimmer than Americans or Brits!

Just out of curiosity...what time does your average Spaniard wake up in the morning?


L (who can't usually keep her eyes open past 8:00 p.m.)

I do much better if I allow 2 to 3 hrs between my last meal and bedtime. I also think I lose better if I don't give in to slight hunger pangs around bed time. I just ignore them and go to sleep.

Thank you for all your responses. That was just an odd day - usually I eat well before that, but it's good to know for any future day. It had been about 12 hours since I had eaten before - and if I wouldn't have gotten something special for me I might have cheated (myself) and had a piece of pizza.