Evening Workout..Dinner...Calories

simply_healthy

Hola People...

Evening Workouts are kinda driving me nuts!!! If I work out in evenings after my office hours... I start workouts around 6:30 and have a protein shake immediately after my work out - around 8:15ish... by the time I reach home and cook dinner... Its almost 9:30 - 10:00 pm.... At times, I just dont feel hungry..( I guess it coz of protein) but I still eat because I "have to" eat dinner and fill the calorie limit in my food diary...

Is it right ??? Is it worth ??? I feel that my body doesnt want food but I am just pushing in food because I want to reach a particular calorie limit... Also, is it good to eat dinner so late??? Should I skip dinner ??? What will you guys eat if you had a schedule like mine?

Please suggest me something that will be effective for achieving good fat loss.

PS: I am keen on weight loss.... weight loss and only weight loss I aint aiming for big muscles...

sarahwright01

I would eat dinner first, or earlier or Plan the extra calories into your day as snacks instead of cramming so much food so late. I wouldn't eat that late....

For example, if you are eating an apple, make it more calories by adding some peanut butter. When you make the protein shake, you can make it more calories by using milk instead of water.

But i wouldnt eat that late. It doesn't help your sleep any. iF you are finding that you aren't hungry, then listen to your body. Still get those calories in though, just get them in earlier when you are hungry!

Good luck!

Birdnicaj

Why don't you try packing something along that you can have as a "dinner" last thing at work before you leave. It will energize you for the workout, and it will be healthier not to eat so late. You should still have that protein shake after the workout - call it a late snack. When you get home, wash it down with a cup of herbal tea. All set!

coastalstorm25

Instead of eating a large dinner which could give you heart burn....why don't you eat more of your calorie intake in your morning and after noon snacks and also make lunch your "dinner". Then after your work out have your shake, make sure there isn't too many calories, and have a healthy light snack before bed. Then you have eaten most of your calories in the afternoon and will have more energy for your workouts at night.
hope this helps

dcorrea78

I have to agree with the other posts.. don't each a big meal that late. Instead, try to get your caloric intake up earlier in the day. Two things to remember... if you are taking a protein shake but you want to lose weight, then you need to account for that extra protein into your diet since your body can only synthesize a certain amount of protein per day. The other is that when aiming for weight loss, if you have a drastic change in diet (cutting out too many calories) your body will naturally slow your metabolism to compensate for the deficit, which will slow your weight loss.

simply_healthy

if you are taking a protein shake but you want to lose weight, then you need to account for that extra protein into your diet since your body can only synthesize a certain amount of protein per day.

Thanks for the reply ! Can you please elaborate on this statement. I believe we need to consume 1 gm of protein per kg of our body weight. Currently I weigh around 105... and so I target to consume around 105-110 gms of protein daily. Is that too much ?

dcorrea78

It looks like your on track. 1 gram per of protein per kg of weight is a pretty good way to track your protein intake.

TrainingWithTonya

The body doesn't know how to tell time. The only problem with eating late could be if you are prone to acid reflux because you lay down right after eating. If you don't have that problem, don't worry about eating late. If you do have that problem, say up for at least an hour after eating.

As for the calories, you can do like others have suggested if you want to add more calories to your meals and snacks earlier in the day. If that doesn't work for you, say because you are already eating 200-300 calories per meal or snack several times a day, then by all means have that 200-300 calorie dinner too. Definitely make sure you are getting your calorie requirements in. I know on here it says that below 1200 calories is starvation mode, but that isn't exactly true. Each person has their own basal metabolic rate and eating below it can cause starvation mode. Basal metabolic rate is how many calories the body needs to maintain normal function of the organs and maintain its current muscle mass without any movement whatsoever. Some people will argue that maintaining muscle isn't part of BMR, but from all of my classes I've been taught that it is because if you can't maintain that muscle with your intake then the body will see it as unnecessary and you start to catabolize (break down) muscle to provide energy for the other organ functions and if that isn't needed then that energy will be stored in the body as fat. (This is actually part of how low carb diets cause weight loss, because you break down muscle so that you don't have to use protein to maintain it so that the protein can be converted to glucose in the body to provide energy.) As maintaining muscle can reduce the risk of injuries, osteoporosis, etc., and it burns more calories so that you don't store them as fat when you eat them, it's recommended that you don't go too low in calories (below your individual BMR) so that you avoid the starvation mode. If you are exercising, you also want to make sure that you include the calories you burned too. Basically, from my training, you want to eat no less then 80% of the total of what you burn. So, say you have a 1200 calorie BMR, then you ad your normal daily activity (even sedentary gets 20% of that added to provide fuel for the act of sitting up in bed, walking to the kitchen, bathroom, etc.) of 240 calories, then you ad exercise calories of 500 burned, thats a total of 1940 burned. 80% of that is 1552. Going below 1552 for your intake would risk starvation mode because your body is not going to let you consume too few calories for the activity you are doing without making sure it has some energy in reserve for later (body fat). With MFP, it subtracts 500 calories per day per pound loss you set as your goal per week. It doesn't allot for that 20% deficit maximum that is actually recommended per my certifications and college classes. So, I'd actually double check that with my own math if I were you.


As for your protein requirement, that sort of depends on your workouts and goals. For the average person with the average workout 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight is recommended. If you are an endurance athlete, you can go up to 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight. If you are a weight lifter/bodybuilder, then you can go up to 2 grams per kilogram of body weight. Remember if you weigh in pounds to divide that number by 2.2046 to get kilograms of body weight.

rml_16

It doesn't matter what time you eat, but I would skip the shake and just have dinner.

REALL FOOD is so much better for you.

Otherwise, if you're not hungry, don't eat. If you feel like you need to fill your calories, eat more during the day.