It's late - should I eat or not?

I'm trying to take in 1700 calories/day. One of my weightloss goals was to stop eating so late. I set a time to stop eating at 9PM.

Say I get home at 9PM, and I've got 300 calories left. I'm sooorta' hungry, but not starving. Should I just grab a big glass of water and go to bed, or should I try to get in that last 300 calories, even though it's late?

I'm just never sure if it's better to eat late or skimp on my calories for the day.

When that happens to me, I usually allow myself a little treat - like a little bag of 100 calorie cookies.  Even if I end up still being under my allotment, it's not too big, and I probably won't be hungry before I fall asleep again.

you can always eat more the next day. jumping your calories up and down is supposed to help with weightloss.  as long as your average is your goal of 1700. 

but i dont think it will hurt if you are low every once in a while, by a little bit.

I'd go for something nutitious--bowl of oatmeal and glass of skim milk or something. I find if I don't eat enough in the day or go to bed hungry I'm starving all day the next day!

This happened to me twice this week. The first time I didn't eat anything and went to bed quite hungry. I ended up overeating the next day at lunch time because I was seriously starving. It happened again to me last night, I got home around 10:30 from studying and was kinda hungry. I had a cup of pirates booty for the taste, and an apple to fill me up. Today I didn't binge. So I vote eat the little snack to save calories in the long run.

I love Pirate's Booty! :)

Thanks for the replies. I've never really paid attention to how I feel the next day and how it my affect me. I'll try to keep that in mind next time that happens. I'll have to run a little "test" to see what works best!

The theory that people gain weight comes from results of people that put off eating during the day and get so hungry later in the night that they binge way over their calorie burn.

If you're trying not to eat late because it's messes up your morning, then I can understand (some foods and beverages later in the night for me makes the morning rough).

If you are "sooorta" hungry, I would eat a light snack...not eating tonight could lead to a binge tomorrow.

I discovered not too long ago ONE of the reasons I binge so terribly on weekends. For a while I was doing "perfect" during the week - NO snacks, NO sugary candy, NO chocolate, NOTHING. It was always on target with my points (this was when I was on WW), and I didn't allow myself even a small snack. Then I weekends I'd allow myself that snack, and then I just could not stop eating.

Now, I work something fun or yummy into each day. Even if it's just a chocolate Fiber One bar (I LOVE them!!) - or Junior mints, or pretzels... popcorn, whatever I can to feel like I'm indulging a little bit.

I still have a problem with binging, especially on weekends, but it's getting better. There must still be some things going on in my head, but I haven't been able to pinpoint them yet.

The idea of a light snack is good. I think I'll do that. At least it's something - I just worry that if I down 300 calories right before bed I'll be too full. But if I can do something around 100 calories, like a handful of pretzels or something, that would probably work.

I still have a problem with binging, especially on weekends, but it's getting better. There must still be some things going on in my head, but I haven't been able to pinpoint them yet.

 I find that when I'm not as busy I tend to eat more/overeat, even when I'm not hungry...I tend to binge if I've been restricting calories (or treats) AND I'm not busy!

This happened to me last night!! I had already eaten more cookies than I should have in the late afternoon, but by the time I was in bed around 11, I was absolutely starving!

Just wanted to share that I thought of your question last night when I was watching Project Runway, being really hungry!

have some milk, non fat or almond milk.

almond milk comes sweetened with vanilla flavor (90 cal. a cup) or unsweetened (40 cal. a cup) the unsweetened one you can take with some honey, or mixed with some oatmeal (whole grain, real oatmeal, steel rolled oats even better).

that will make you feel like you had dessert and will keep you under the 300 calories left that you have to consume.

milk is always my choice when I am low in calories at the end of the day, is a gain, gain situation, it relaxes you, gives you calcium and vitamins, helps your metabolism and, if it's almond milk you chose, provides your with good fat.

of course, you can always have an apple or grapefruit.