Late night dinner - help!

[spillsy]

Hi guys,

Due to our lives, my bf and I have to do all of our training at about 7pm everynight - this leaves us to wonder - should we eat before we go to the gym - 5pmish? Or should we just eat when we get home. We have chosen to eat when we get home. We try to keep our meals to low carbs, high protein and lots of veggies. I know we have to refuel our depleted tanks with the carbs, so we will just have a whole wheat bun or a small serving of sweet potatoes...but sometimes we are SOOO hungry by the time we get home that either our workout suffers because we are tired and have lower energy because we have been used to eating dinner at 6pmish and are now missing that time - OR - we eat TOO much when we get home and we are undoing all the good work we've just done!!! What i'm asking is...IF we choose to eat when we get home - do you think we are doing the best we can..or should we scrap the late night dinners all together and work out something else? As I'm writing this i'm coming up with the answers myself I think, but i'm interested to hear if anyone else is in this situation and what they choose to do...
OH...btw...both of our goals is weight loss!!! and muscle building for me!

[imperfectly_lou]

Is it possible for you to increase the size of your pre workout meal and have that around 5-6ish? You could then slightly reduce the size of your dinner post workout. Provided you tailor your meals to your calorie limits, you should be fine with doing this.

[Amanda76]

DEFINITELY eat before working out...and get a FULL SERVING OF CARBS (1/2 cup oats or rice, 5 oz or so of sweet potato...more for your husband). Is there a reason you're avoiding carbs around your workouts? Eating them late in the day won't effect your fat loss if you've bought into that. Don't be afraid to move your meal closer to your workout, either. NONE of your meals should be large. If you eat a small meal between 6 and 6:30, by 7 you should be ready to roll at the gym. Also, if you're making sure to eat every 2-4 hours throughout the day, you won't be so ravenous at 6 pm that you accidentally eat too much before your workout.

During the week, my workout normally begins between 8 and 9pm. I eat dinner (lean meat, complex carb and veggie) about an hour before I workout, drink BCAA's during my workout and then come home and eat cottage cheese and nuts and go to bed. I prefer to surround my workouts with carbs (with both my pre and post workout meals containing protein and complex carbs), but I have a hard time sleeping at night and a full meal pre-bed will keep me up so that's what I do on the weekends (I also save my most difficult workouts for the weekend when I know I'll have the best pre and post workout nutrition).

[spillsy]

great advice girls...thanks - i'll try not to be so afraid of eating near the workout!!!! I'll just eat the right stuff!!!!!!

[kimm4]

Hi guys,

Due to our lives, my bf and I have to do all of our training at about 7pm everynight - this leaves us to wonder - should we eat before we go to the gym - 5pmish? Or should we just eat when we get home. We have chosen to eat when we get home. We try to keep our meals to low carbs, high protein and lots of veggies. I know we have to refuel our depleted tanks with the carbs, so we will just have a whole wheat bun or a small serving of sweet potatoes...but sometimes we are SOOO hungry by the time we get home that either our workout suffers because we are tired and have lower energy because we have been used to eating dinner at 6pmish and are now missing that time - OR - we eat TOO much when we get home and we are undoing all the good work we've just done!!! What i'm asking is...IF we choose to eat when we get home - do you think we are doing the best we can..or should we scrap the late night dinners all together and work out something else? As I'm writing this i'm coming up with the answers myself I think, but i'm interested to hear if anyone else is in this situation and what they choose to do...
OH...btw...both of our goals is weight loss!!! and muscle building for me!

As long as you're eating the right amount of calories per day, I don't care if your last meal is at midnight...it's not going to affect you!

Too many people think they can't eat carbs after a certain time of the day blah, blah, blah....if your numbers are on you're good to go