Last meal timing

[JustClaudia]

Hi, guys! I start my journey on W30 tomorrow. I'm having trouble scheduling my evening/last meal. I work out after work (crossfit). Some days of the week I go straight from work and I'm home by 7-7:30pm. Should I have my last meal then (I'd be eating around 7:30-8:00pm, I'm in bed around 10:30)? Other days my class is not until 7:30pm and I don't get home until 9pm. I'm planning on eating my last meal before crossfit on those days but I'm not sure how that's going to work out. My main goal is weight/fat loss so I'm leery of adding too many calories in pre and post WO meals too. Any suggestions? Thanks!!

[Tom Denham]

I would eat my last meal right before going to bed instead of not eating after a workout. Such timing is not ideal, but I would wake up hungry in the middle of the night if I could get to sleep in the first place otherwise.

You are not adding extra calories with pre- and post-workout meals. Those are compensatory meals for the extra energy you are burning during workouts. In my experience, they pay off in faster recovery times from hard workouts.

[JustClaudia]

Thanks the input, Tom. I agree that I need to eat something after my workout. I just have to figure out what. As for my reference to the "extra calories", I was going with the thought that I needed to be using stored calories/energy during my workouts and compensating for that would not help me to create the deficit I need for the weight loss. Is that not the case? Thanks again!

[Laura B]

Hi Claudia!

 

I WOD at 6pm and often do not eat dinner until 8-9pm. I would much rather be eating right when I get home at 7:30, but eating dinner is better than not. I eat a small something before I WOD (either a chicken thigh, boiled egg or applegate farms hot dog) and consider dinner my post WOD meal. I have found that this really works for me.