You don't need to cook complicating entree's. Saying you don't have time to eat clean is an excuse most of the time. You don't even gotta put too much emphasis on the "clean" part. If your keeping your macro ratios in check and calories under maintenance, you'll get leaner while still progressing in strength at the current stage you're in.
^ what is an optimal macro ratio for me? 33 protein, 33 carb, 33 fat?
I am definitely no expert on this, but from my own personal dieting experiences, which I went on after getting advice from a couple of pretty knowledgeable people, what works well is sticking to these rules:
1) Keep protein intake high, at the very least 1g per pound of bodyweight.
2) Keep carb intake low, like under 100g for the day.
3) If you get in the necessary amount of protein, and keep your carb intake low, basically you can have fat for the rest of your daily diet as long as you stay caloric deficit. The less you have, the more calories you'll burn for the day, but harder to manage hunger/strength. You gotta figure this out.
The carb rules obviously can be changed. Many people take in more than 100g a day and still works. I just believe keeping carbs very low is the most effective, but most difficult way.
If you want to get very general, keep protein intake high (at least 1g per pound of bodyweight) and keep calories under maintenance and you'll get leaner.
Also, low carb doesn't affect you too much in terms of weight training in the manner we train in (trying to increase vert). And yeah, I did what you mentioned as well, eat the most food late at night so the diet won't affect my sleep.
I wake up and eat relatively small, usually all protein and some carbs, go workout and get some more protein after. Then I have another small meal later and then I get hungry but I fight the hunger until late night and eat a decent sized meal and sleep happily. Just what I did on my cut and it worked fine. I was making strength gains almost the whole time too.
