Making your most social meal the main one. I either eat breakfast and lunch (at work with my coworkers) or just lunch if I’m not hungry when I wake up. Living alone it doesn’t make much sense for me to spend north of 1 hour cooking, eating and cleaning up every evening. But for instance someone with kids would probably want to have a family dinner as their main meal.
I wouldn’t sweat it if you eat out with friends every now and then unless you do it really often (but then again, you could make these your main meals if they are the norm).
In my first round of IF, my eating window was 8 am to 2 or 4 pm and maintaining a social life was nearly impossible, since a lot of opportunities for gathering are usually after work/dinner. In fact I suspect it had a lot to do with why I gave it up so quickly. This time around my eating window is noonish to 6-8pm and I think that helps a lot. I can get together with friends for lunch or dinner, and that takes care of most occasions. I just make sure I stop eating at a reasonable time fairly close to that window and wait at least 16 hours before my next meal.
I will never say no to social gatherings, but when I do I’ll eat small portion and will begin the next day.
It will mess up my fasting schedule for that day but I’ll correct it the next day, I dont adjust my fasting hours because it will mess up with my IF schedule.