Eat after 8?

Question.  What is a good time to stop eating for the day?  Does it matter?  i find that when I get in from work at 8:30pm that I binge so I am thinking that maybe I should just have a snack right before I come home and then try to cut myself off for the day.  Does it help anything metabolically to not eat past a certain time or not? 

Any hints/tips would be appreciated.

Doesn't make any difference 'metabolically' what time you eat...   If you tend to overeat and make poor food choices in your evening snacks then it's going to help you if you try cutting them down.  If you like having a snack after 8.30pm and you make it something light, you'll still lose weight.

Yeah, I've read that it doesn't matter what time you eat, a calorie is a calorie when the time of day is involved. If you eat more than you burn in a day, you gain, eat less, you lose, it doesn't matter what time, whether it's 3 PM or 3 AM. Actually, I can usually never go to bed without a snack.

People only say that you can't eat after a certain time (like 9 for example) because you tend to eat more unhealthy "snack" foods after dinner, (just as you said, you binge, so I guess it's somewhat true) so it's best not to just have nothing. So as long as it's not unhealthy, it's completely fine!

I don't have a cut off time for eating.  The Food Log clocks change to the next day at midnight.  As long as I have the calories to eat, then I'll eat if I'm hungry.  BUT, I usually don't eat after 8:00 at night, because I don't like to go to bed full.  I almost enjoy a bit of a tummy growl.   That's just me.  Few and far beween that I have "left over calories" though.  I like my food!

I feel like eating in the evening is a HUGE problem for me; if I start snacking, even on healthy foods, I just can't stop sometimes! So for the last 2 weeks since I've been on here, I've been trying to stop completely between 7 and 8. Im in law school so I don't get finished studying usually til near midnight which means I get pretty hungry - but I try just drinking tea or other no-cal drinks after 7-8 and I think that helps. I don't know if there's a magic time you should stop eating, but a few hours before bed feels good to me. :)

Thanks for the advice.  I am gonna try and cut out all food past 8 and see what happens.  I think in the evening boredom kicks in when the kids go to bed and I cant think of anything better to do.  This site has really helped with the support and just having something to pass the time in the evening. 

Thx much!

ps Blazze is my husbands cc act that I replied in.  I entered his weight and forgot to switch back to mine.  Thx again tho!

Actually I heard to increase weight loss, it's better not to eat two hours before one goes to bed.

I think the logic in this is because once you've finished digesting your meal and you go to sleep, the body will tap into fat reserves for energy while you sleep (yes, we do burn calories in our sleep or inactivity).

i dont eat after 7, ever. the calories that u eat late at night hardly get used because you just go to bed and dont use them. calories are energy, and how much energy do u need to hang out on the couch or sleep? cutting yourself off at 7 is a rule that i heard in both my health class in highschool, as well as when i was majored in nutrition in college.

For me, I don't eat after 7pm unless I'm really famished.

put anything you eat right before bed an the following days calorie count list, make up for it the next day. After a couple of times of this you may look at it differently!

Original Post by ryanndani:

i dont eat after 7, ever. the calories that u eat late at night hardly get used because you just go to bed and dont use them. calories are energy, and how much energy do u need to hang out on the couch or sleep? cutting yourself off at 7 is a rule that i heard in both my health class in highschool, as well as when i was majored in nutrition in college.

 hmmm... let's see... my burn meter (set for sedentary) says i burn 1820 a day, so for the 6 hours that i sleep i burn about 455.

this is the first time i've ever looked at it like this! what this says to me is that (for me) while i'm sleeping i'm working on my 500/day deficit. so if i eat my 1320 during the day, no matter how i chose to split it up i'll sleep away my deficit.

i do not have any set time for my last calorie intake; sometimes it's early, sometimes it's late and i've never noticed a difference, not even in how well i sleep. but different things work for different people.