Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. I work some nights until 7:30. Then I go to the gym, go home, and eat. The problem is until I go to the gym and get home its around 9:30. I eat a meal though right after I work out. When I eat late like that I try to keep it reasonable, some kind of low fat meat and veggies. Basically, I can't help but eat late on nights like that, and it happens about twice a week. The other bad thing is I go to bed not long after I eat. I work at 8:30 am, so its too early to try to get a workout in before work, especially when I don't' get home until 8 or 9. I would be dragging my 1 or 2 pm.

I eat well through the day, good breakfast, an apple 2 hours later, then lunch. Later in the afternoon, I have a protein bar and thats it until I get home from the gym. My calories are around 2000-2300, at a 40/40/20 breakdown. (I use fitday to calculate all of this). I'm 6'1", 250.

Any input??

Thanks.

Any advice here would be greatly appreciated. I work some nights until 7:30. Then I go to the gym, go home, and eat. The problem is until I go to the gym and get home its around 9:30. I eat a meal though right after I work out. When I eat late like that I try to keep it reasonable, some kind of low fat meat and veggies. Basically, I can't help but eat late on nights like that, and it happens about twice a week. The other bad thing is I go to bed not long after I eat. I work at 8:30 am, so its too early to try to get a workout in before work, especially when I don't' get home until 8 or 9. I would be dragging my 1 or 2 pm.

I eat well through the day, good breakfast, an apple 2 hours later, then lunch. Later in the afternoon, I have a protein bar and thats it until I get home from the gym. My calories are around 2000-2300, at a 40/40/20 breakdown. (I use fitday to calculate all of this). I'm 6'1", 250.

Any input??

Thanks.

If you're getting home around 9:30, and eating, what time are you going to bed, 11pm or so? You said 8:30 for work, and working out before would be too early? Can you shed some light on that? Do you have a long commute?

I go to bed around 10:30-11 every night, and I'm up at 5:40a doing my 45 minutes of LISS every day. I'm done before the kids get up at 6:30 am. I do get that afternoon lull, but a small cup of coffee and I can push through.

My suggestions to try would be this (try for a week and see how it goes):

1) No carbs at all for that evening meal (stick with good protein and fat, maybe a lean steak or even ground beef).

2) Skip that last 30 minutes of sleep in the morning for a week and do some LISS cardio (take a walk outside if the gym ride is too long).

3) Try some caffeine in the afternoon to get past the lull.

4) You might need more protein during the day. Add some peanut butter or cheese with your apple, exchange some better protein and less carbs for that after-lunch snack (less lull, longer sustainability). It also looks like you're not eating enough, and the meals you're getting are too big.

5) Not sure if the protein bar is the PWO meal or what, but you could pack some whey powder in a bottle and use that.

Anyway, there are a few things to try, good luck!

What are you saying is hurting your progress? The fact you're eating after the sun goes down? Or even before you go to bed?

Why do you think this is a problem all by itself?

I think you really need to get out of the mentality of 'what time of day' it is to being aware that you're eating when your body requires it. If you're worried about not losing weight because you're eating right before bed you have to also know that this is usually the case for people who have their workouts in the morning or mid-day. If you're working out late at night like that then right after (within 30 minutes) you'll need to have fast absorbing protein (whey protein) then about 1-2 hours later your body requires a balanced meal. Whether or not it's before bed or not I believe your body will use it to rebuild the energy you exhausted during the workout.

Thanks for the replies.

Let me try to answer some questions. I go to bed around 11:30, and I usulay finish a meal around 10:30. I start around 8:30 am, the gym is about half way between my appt. and work. So 15 mins to the gym, and 15 to work. I could go in before work, and shower there and go to work. Those of you who do that....would you make your breakfast ahead of time and pack it and take it with you? One option I have would be to get up around 5:30 (thanks, beartoothweb) and go work out, that way I wouldn't have to eat so late. If I had a house w/ a home gym I would have no problem working out before work.

What I'm saying is hurting my progress is eating an hour before I go to bed. Is this not the case? Just another myth?

GuitarNWeights - So you're saying I should not be concerned with eating a meal an hour before bed?


Thanks again for the help :tu:

What I'm saying is hurting my progress is eating an hour before I go to bed. Is this not the case? Just another myth?
Yep.
As long as you stay within your target calories and macros I wouldn't worry about it.

What I'm saying is hurting my progress is eating an hour before I go to bed. Is this not the case? Just another myth?

GuitarNWeights - So you're saying I should not be concerned with eating a meal an hour before bed?

I workout after work, too, and have a whey protein shake directly after working out. 1.5-2 hours later I have dinner, which is between 7-9 p.m. depending on what happens with my schedule.

I usually eat chicken or steak for dinner with a serving of brown rice and some veggies, like canned corn or frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, etc).

Since Jan. 5 I have lose about 4 percent body fat.

As long as you're watching your calories to fit your health plan (I assume you're cutting, so you should have your macros to a point where you would lose 1-2 pounds per week, or, like me being skinny fat, I'm losing nearly no weight and shedding body fat, which means I'm gaining muscle) you should be fine.

If you see John Stone's initial cutting diet he ate protein, fats and veggies at night and skipped the complex carbs of brown rice or whole grains. It worked for him just like what I'm doing works. I think it works for me because I work out at night and my body needs that stuff. I think JS works out in the mornings so he doesn't need that nighttime energy, etc.

Anyway, now I'm just rambling. Those are my thoughts.