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MyFitnessPal Community

What time do you stop eating each night and go to sleep every night?

crissy976

I'm wondering how late some of us actually eat something and what time everyone goes to sleep? I usually want a little snack after dinner at about 7:30 and I'm trying to get better with going to sleep a little earlier, as I've read it helps with weight loss. (Hard to do since I'm a night owl). I've been going to bed no later than 11pm, lately, but am trying to make it closer to 10pm. I'll get there... lol. How about you?

Replies

cwolfman13

My wife and I usually eat dinner around 8:30/9 PM...usually in bed by 9:30/10 PM...up around 5 AM.

Dano74

I hit the sack at 1 AM and eat at about 12-12:45 AM.

Mouse_Potato

I am usually in bed between 11:30 and midnight and I eat up until it's time to brush my teeth. I can't sleep on an empty stomach.

Gisel2015

Dinner ends between 7:30 and 8PM, some times earlier; desert is 1/2 hour later, at the most but if I am not hungry I will skip it. We don't do late night snacks, and we don't go to bed until 11:30PM, sometimes later for me.

There is between 12 and 14 hrs fast between the previous dinner and breakfast.

seska422

Meal timing doesn't help or hurt weight loss. It's about overall calories. Space your eating out in whatever way works for you.

If you like to eat a late snack, save some calories for that.

crissy976

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this than I should... lol. I've always thought that what you eat before bed kind of "sticks to you..." Not true?

seska422

crissy976 wrote: »

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this than I should... lol. I've always thought that what you eat before bed kind of "sticks to you..." Not true?

Not true.

jemhh

I eat dinner around 5:30/6 and if I have a snack it's at 9. I go to bed at 9:30 and fall asleep around 11. I like to have a peanut butter sandwich before bed.

robingoblin

I have dinner at 7 ish and go to sleep at midnight-ish. My dietician says it's totes fine (and even encouraged) to have a little bedtime snack (i.e. a piece of fruit with ~10 nuts) so I don't wake up a ravenous, carb-binging monster.

lemurcat12

crissy976 wrote: »

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this than I should... lol. I've always thought that what you eat before bed kind of "sticks to you..." Not true?

No, not true.

The whole time I was losing weight (and now) I ate between 9 and 10 most nights. I go to bed around 11-11:30 usually.

fitoverfortymom

We usually finish dinner by 7pm and that's the last I try to eat (I'm usually out of calories about then anyway). Sometimes I have calories left and I'll eat a piece of fruit before bed. Doesn't seem to affect my sleep (I go to bed at 9:30 pm because I need my 7-8 hours).

crissy976

robingoblin wrote: »

I have dinner at 7 ish and go to sleep at midnight-ish. My dietician says it's totes fine (and even encouraged) to have a little bedtime snack (i.e. a piece of fruit with ~10 nuts) so I don't wake up a ravenous, carb-binging monster.

It's weird for me, because if I have something to eat before bed, I'm STARVING when I wake up. But if I don't eat for a couple hours before bed, I'm not that hungry in the morning! lol

cwolfman13

crissy976 wrote: »

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this than I should... lol. I've always thought that what you eat before bed kind of "sticks to you..." Not true?

Not true...your metabolism is working 24/7.

Much of this kind of "mythology" simply stems from inventive ways to control calories...not eating after a certain time or not eating grains/starches at night, etc is simply a way of controlling calories and might be beneficial to someone who's not actively keeping a diary or counting calories...but yeah...your metabolism is going to town 24/7.

ClubSilencio

Eat supper at 8-9pm. Go night-night at 1am.

Used to feel way better eating at 5-6 and going to bed before 10 though. Oh well.

malibu927

Stop eating around 9-9:30...bed depends on when I have to be at work. Sometimes 10, sometimes midnight or later.

dbharmoneous

This was an interesting discussion, great answers to a great question. It helps to hear the myth busted by more than one individual.

DisneyDude85

Dinner is anywhere between 530 and 7, snack around 9, bed by 10 to be up at 5:30a

sgt1372

For me, the last meal is around 9-10pm. Hit the sack around 1am. Wake up around 8am but don't get up til around 9am and 1st meal is around 10-11am. "Lunch" usually isn't til around 4-5 pm. So, the meals are still evenly spread out during the day; I just get started later than others.

Christine_72

Dinner is usually between 5-6pm, dessert straight after. I go to bed around 7 and watch tv in there instead of the living room. I get up between 5-6am.

rainbowbow

i usually have something sweet about 20-ish minutes before bed.

However, in the mornings, i'm not hungry for a couple hours.

Ploofs

Dinner at 5:30 and I'm in bed by 10:00

. I don't sleep well on a heavy stomach.

Shana67

We eat dinner around 6:30, have a snack/wine at 7:30. I eat the bulk of my calories in the evening. In bed between 8:30-9, up at 5a to workout

cwolfman13

As a side note, I've always personally wondered how people manage to eat dinner at 5 or 6 or whatever and be done eating for the day...hell, there are a lot of days I don't even leave the office until 6 and then I have an hour commute home...

CaffeinatedConfectionist

cwolfman13 wrote: »

As a side note, I've always personally wondered how people manage to eat dinner at 5 or 6 or whatever and be done eating for the day...hell, there are a lot of days I don't even leave the office until 6 and then I have an hour commute home...

Right? I'm lucky to be home by 5:30 or so, and then I still need to work out.

Dinner for me is usually 8-9, bed somewhere between 9:30 and 11:30 depending on how I feel. Up at 5:30, bah. There is almost always dessert immediately before bed.

And others have already covered this well, but yeah, meal timing is entirely based on preference and what helps you adhere to a deficit.

BambiiKnees

+1 for everyone's statements about meal timing myths.
Currently, I'm trying to readjust to finishing my last meal around 6-8pm. I don't like waking up in the middle of the night to release the water I had with my dinner.
My sleep situation is the same as yours: I aim to be in bed by 10pm, but it's more often around 11pm.

Wynterbourne

crissy976 wrote: »

So maybe I'm making a bigger deal about this than I should... lol. I've always thought that what you eat before bed kind of "sticks to you..." Not true?

Not true at all. Eat when you need to eat to keep yourself satisfied. You could sit down to your dinner in bed, eat, put the plate on the night stand, and then fall asleep and lose the exact same amount of weight as if you had had the exact same food three hours earlier. Good ole fashion wives' tales.

eileen0515

We eat between 5:30 and 6:00. I stop eating when I reach my calorie target.

Machka9

If I go to bed about 1 am, I stop eating about midnight.

If I go to bed about 2 am, I might still be eating at 1 am.

Christine_72

cwolfman13 wrote: »

As a side note, I've always personally wondered how people manage to eat dinner at 5 or 6 or whatever and be done eating for the day...hell, there are a lot of days I don't even leave the office until 6 and then I have an hour commute home...

I work part time from home.

afatpersonwholikesfood

We eat dinner unusually late because of hubby's work schedule - 11:30 PM. That means I don't have to worry about being hungry between dinner and bed, but it presents me with extra challenges. If I am up at 7 AM, that's a 16 hour window to stretch out my calories. I typically don't have my first meal until the early afternoon, and I am pretty ravenous by then. By 5/6, I am hungry again, and I still have 5+ hours until dinner after that. It can be hard.

I'm not willing to give up the late dinners, though. It's sometimes the only time we get together, and I don't want to stare at him while he eats leftovers.