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Original poster

Any other early dinner eaters out there?

117 replies

HorrorFan81 · 09/01/2025 13:22

I grew up always eating dinner around 5.30/6 so I guess got used to eating fairly early

I now WFH and finish at 4 and it's not unheard of for me to eat dinner around 4.30. 6 would be late for me. I quite like intermittent fasting but always need breakfast (eat around 9am) so this gives me a decent non eating window

If I eat later than 6 I would need a snack after work, which is extra calories. If I eat early I don't snack before bed - that would be me done for the day and won't eat again till breakfast

I read on here about people eating at 9pm, I would honestly be gnawing my arm off 🤣

Obviously not everyone can facilitate eating so early with work / clubs etc but anyone else prefer an early dinner?

OP posts:
SharpOpalNewt · 09/01/2025 15:34

I prefer to eat earlier, yes. If I eat late I sometimes get acid reflux or heartburn when I try to sleep as it hasn't gone down properly.

ForZanyAquaViewer · 09/01/2025 15:35

We eat dinner at half 8-9. DC eat at 6pm, DH does bedtime at 7pm. I wind down with a glass of wine and music, making us dinner (I find cooking really relaxing) and we eat a leisurely meal. It’s our time to catch up/hang out.

Growing up, dinner was generally around 7pm.

HollyBerryz · 09/01/2025 15:37

I like dinner around 4.30-5.30. Usually aim for 5ish. Will have it later if we have stuff on, but i feel famished if I have to wait until 6.30-7!

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Original poster
HorrorFan81 · 09/01/2025 15:38

Ginmonkeyagain · 09/01/2025 15:28

Depends. Earliest tends to be at about 11pm. Mr Monkey tends to be the later eater as he does not get in from work until 9.30pm at the earliest at least twice a week.

Wow I think this is the latest I've seen! What time do you go to bed out of interest?

OP posts:
Original poster
HorrorFan81 · 09/01/2025 15:39

gaggiagirl · 09/01/2025 13:35

Yes we have our tea at 5pm. I have lunch at 12 and am ravenous by then.
The children are hungry from the moment they get in from school so the sooner tea is on the table the less snacking they will do

Yes very similar to here 😀

OP posts:
HandsomeJack · 09/01/2025 15:42

I'm literally eating dinner right now!

Haaaaappyyynewyear · 09/01/2025 15:50

5pm now I have young kids. Used to be 6pm pre kids. I’m hungry by then too and I can’t think of much worse than cooking again and clearing away again once they’re in bed! Nothing then until breakfast 7.30am ish (unless it’s the weekend and I treat myself to some chocolate). I don’t like going to bed with a full stomach and could never last until 8pm etc to eat dinner normally!

Bjorkdidit · 09/01/2025 16:11

I eat according to appetite when possible, which generally means breakfast around 10-11, lunch 12-1 ish and dinner anywhere between about 4.30 and 7 ish but because I've had proper food earlier in the day I often don't want much in the way of dinner anyway. Unless I've been unable to get anything decent earlier in the day and I'm probably so hungry I feel ill by about 5 pm.

I also couldn't wait until 9 pm for dinner and I don't subscribe to the concept of a 'main meal', most of my meals are similar in type and quantity. I couldn't be one of those people who seem to eat little but fruit, yogurt, soup or pastries in the daytime in anticipation of a large dinner, I'd spend the entire day starving and miserable.

But there does seem to be an opinion on here that anyone who eats dinner before about 8 pm is somehow a bit childish and unsophisticated with people coming out with statements like 'I don't know any adults who have dinner that early, isn't everyone still at work until 7 pm'.

Huckyfell · 09/01/2025 16:14

If I eat after 7 then a glass of wine or so and a beer seems to appear, between 5:30 and 6:30 its soft drinks, don't ask me why it just happens.

LaurieFairyCake · 09/01/2025 16:15

It's 4.14, I just finished mine

I do intermittent fasting so I always eat all my food before 6pm

LapinR0se · 09/01/2025 16:17

I’ve discovered that my ideal is a brunch and early dinner. I’m not really a 3 meals person. I like to eat at 11 and 5/6

Augustus40 · 09/01/2025 16:18

I eat early too. 415pm or so. Even weekends.

With a small supper c 615 (usually weetabix).

fassnk · 09/01/2025 16:20

We eat early too, around 5.30pm and sometimes 6 if its a night with after school clubs. I like it because we all eat together, then DP and I get to have a light supper or snacks when DS is in bed.

Mairzydotes · 09/01/2025 17:05

I prefer to eat early too.

My dc eat at 4:30 so I eat then too.

TheDandyLion · 09/01/2025 17:07

DH and I both do early shifts. He finishes around 3pm and I finish at 4pm so we eat dinner at 5:30-6ish

Cattery · 09/01/2025 17:12

When the kids were little they used to have their tea by about 5pm and we’d eat later in peace after a few drinks x

RobinHood19 · 09/01/2025 17:31

I’d personally be too full for dinner at that time - but my lunch finishes at 3pm most days! Dinner is 8/9pm if I’m at home, 10/11pm if I’m at work - with snacks up to midnight if working evenings, I can’t go to bed too “empty”.

Heelworkhero · 09/01/2025 17:37

I just eat whenever I’m hungry. Never have set meal times.

But I don’t have kids, so not tied to a schedule in that sense…..

At the weekend my husband will say ‘it’s lunchtime - what shall we have?’ Even if he had a late breakfast at 10.30 or so……..
My response is always ‘are you actually hungry, or wanting to eat as it’s ‘time’.
He’s overweight. I’m not……

Berlinlover · 09/01/2025 17:39

If I ate after 6pm I wouldn’t be able to sleep that night.

hopeishere · 09/01/2025 17:42

We eat at 6 or as close to as I can. Always ate at the same time as kids I was not one who did kids at 6 and adults at 8. I'd have gnawed my arm off!!

hopeishere · 09/01/2025 17:44

Augustus40 · 09/01/2025 16:18

I eat early too. 415pm or so. Even weekends.

With a small supper c 615 (usually weetabix).

What if you go out for a meal?

AlisonDonut · 09/01/2025 17:45

I prefer my main meal at 2 with a light tea before 5:30.

But when the weather is good in the winter I don't like to lose valuable daylight time cooking so switch them over if we are having a fine day so I can do some gardening.

Still always eat by 5:30 otherwise I get bad indigestion.

user1471538283 · 09/01/2025 17:54

I love an early tea! We mostly eat by 7pm but if it's just me I eat earlier.

Growing up we ate before 6 but we could do that because my DF started work really early. Some families ate very late because they got in later.

PrincessHoneysuckle · 09/01/2025 17:58

Snack around 10.30

Lunch 12

Dinner 5.30

Ladyof2025 · 09/01/2025 18:10

I try to have all my eating done by 6pm. If I'm out already busy this may be extended to seven but anything past that and I go to bed with indigestion. It also helps with intermittent fasting I try not to eat before noon and that gives me a good 18 hours most days to rest my entire system from a cup of tea of course.