does not eating after 7:00 pm makes that much of a differenc

The timing of when you eat has nothing to do with weight loss. There is no scientific proof that eating after 7pm (or any other time) will affect how much weight you lose.

There are a lot of people who eat large amounts of calories right before bed and still lose! As long as you are consuming less calories than your body burns in a day you will lose weight regardless of what time of day you eat those calories.

The only reasons for setting a time to cut off eating is if you either suffer from heartburn or can't sleep properly eating close to bedtime. Or if you have a habit of snacking a lot... people who do this tend to sometimes put in a time when they can't eat after to help with the mindless munching.

The only difference it made for me was that I was miserable. I would wake up at about 4am very, very hungry, with stomach pain.

I know many people swear by this, but because I work all three shifts, I need to be really flexible about when I eat.

I agree it doesn't matter...I always have an evening snack sometimes as late as 10pm and I'm bed by 11pm Ive still had success!

I read in an article that Dr. Oz said not stop eating 3 hours before you go to bed- whatever time that may be. Try to be somewhat active and not totally sedentary before you go to bed- a walk, some light cleaning, etc. I've noticed a difference recently now that I've tried to implement that into my lifestyle!

Did you mean he said stop eating 3 hours before bed? If so yes if you have stomach or digestion issues if you eat late. Hell if I eat taco bell late or before bed I'll be up and on the toilet guaranteed lol. So yes if that's the case don't do it. But there are tons of people that fast all day and eat all their calories at nite. Works fine for them. So it just depends on each person's body how they handle food late before bed etc.

I have had success eating my carbs EARLY. My trainer told me that if I want to have something unhealthy to try to do it in the morning so that I have all day to burn it off. Makes sense to me.

I also subscribe to the notion of eat like a king for breakfast, prince for lunch, and pauper for dinner. I eat my heaviest meals as early as possible. For dinner I very rarely have carbs. About 50% of the work week I eat my dinner at work so that I have time to digest it a bit before going to the gym at night. I work out super late- sometimes at 10 PM so I never eat after I work out.

This can be useful for people who tend to snack all evening. A hard-and-fast rule like "no food after 7" keeps that from happening, but only because it makes them consume fewer total calories. As long as you're staying within your calorie goal, you can eat whenever you like.

My trainer told me that if I want to have something unhealthy to try to do it in the morning so that I have all day to burn it off. Makes sense to me.

It would also make sense that you could burn that off during the night or the next day.

Time doesn't matter but when I am ready to quit eating for the night (and my kids, lol) I make a big deal about "closing" the kitchen. I get my last glass of water put stuff away etc. and then I declare "THE KITCHEN IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE NIGHT" and that's it. It helps me not to just keeping grabbing 1 more snack, and then 1 more snack, and then 1 more snack.

It doesn't matter when you eat. I think not eating after x time tend to put a curb on mindless, late night snacking, but if you're eating balanced and staying within your caloric range, it won't matter.

I'm not a natural snacker throughout the day, I usually feel too busy, but occasionally I'll have a piece of fruit (this is today, eating better and in the past, eating not so well.)

But one habit I did pick up was my excessive night-time eating of the wrong types of food.

Before MFP, during my lifestyle change, I adopted a policy of brushing my teeth straight after dinner, or dessert if I was having a treat.

Now that I'm doing MFP, I have all these snacks to eat by the end of the day. These are not excessive, but I feel I should start spreading them out during the day because there is a certain element of guilt with eating all this wonderfully yummy food. Or perhaps I should just enjoy it. Usually it's a piece of low fat cheese, a piece of fruit, almonds, maybe even some Kavli crispbread with avocado, vegemite, peanut buttter, ricotta etc (but not all at once lol), chocolate is on the menu as well sometimes (lately I've been polishing off 2 mini eggs).