Looking to lose 46 pounds

sushico

Hi guys! I've long been a member here but I want to take my weight loss seriously this time as I am a bit overweight and I want to have a slimmer and healthier figure next year.
My big problem is I can't stop eating at night. I think it's more of eating because I get bored and I've developed a habit of doing so already. My entire family loves food as well, so I find eating less a real struggle.
I workout regularly, around 3 times a week (usually boxing or a stationary bicycle), but other than that I'm just in the office or at home. I don't get to walk much outside since it can get quite dangerous in our city at night. So i'm limited to activities I can do at the gym or at home.
Can anyone give me advice on what I can do to achieve my goal? I am currently 196lbs (89 kg) and I want to be at least 150lbs so I can be at a normal BMI again. I've lost around 3kgs since my starting weight but I still need to lose 21 kgs(roughly 46 pounds). It's quite a big number and while I know it's not impossible, it can be really hard. How much calories should I be targeting in a way that I can still be full? and what can i do with my intense late-night cravings? How do you distract yourselves from it?

Thanks for listening to my story and looking forward to your responses.

CMNVA

Well, I probably won't be too helpful in that I have no magical answers to tell you how to keep full or easy way to stop cravings.

I never feel full anymore. I know that lots of people on here report feeling full in a calorie deficit but I'm not one of them. It takes a lot of food to make me feel satisfied. I just have faced the reality that I'm not going to have that feeling anymore as long as I continue to eat normally and healthfully. Now, over time, my stomach seems to have shrunk so if I do go over my caloric goal and it's with a restaurant meal or something like that, I actually do feel pretty stuffed.

Now to the late night eating. I also developed a lifelong habit of having my "treats" and snacks at night, usually while watching my favorite TV show. It was my reward for a hard day at the office, coming home and doing laundry, watching kids, etc. It was my downtime. Stopping that has been very hard for me. When I was at 1200 calories, I was just miserable at that time. Now that I have a few more calories in my day, I plan for a snack each night. I've never really been able to break it. I'd like to, because then I could have more solid meals, but so far, I can't. But I do plan for it and then that's it. Do I want to eat more than I plan for? You bet. I just have to be very stern with myself and say NO. As I said, there's no magic here and no way to make those feelings go away, at least for me. But if you can just face that reality and get through it, you can still lose weight.

kommodevaran

Yes, you can stop eating at night if you 1) decide to do so, and 2) eat enough through the day. It can help to not be constantly surrounded by temptation, to be occupied with something else, to eat regular meals, to plan meals so that you don't feel psychologically deprived (eat food you like and in company of others whenever possible), and not to expect to feel "full", but pleasantly satisfied after meals, and so hungry that you look forward to eating, before meals.

MFP will have given you a calorie goal to reach. But you have to figure out how fast you should lose (I personally think that's unnecessary, this should have been built in), because weight loss rate can make a big difference to calorie allotment, and it's hard to stick to a too aggressive deficit. You're around 5'5"? A goal between 1400-1700 calories should be reasonable for you.

AJ_G

My advice is stop eating breakfast, eat a normal sized lunch (35%-40% of your daily calories), and eat a big dinner(60%-65% of your daily calories). I've been doing it for years with a lot of success. When you eat a large dinner, you tend not to be hungry for the rest of the night and you stop eating. It can be difficult at first to stop eating breakfast, but I promise you if you can get through a few days to a week of not eating breakfast, you will stop getting hungry in the morning. Especially with the large dinners. Just a suggestion, feel free to give it a try, or not, do whatever you want lol.

CafeRacer808

I tend to be a night time snacker as well. After logging on MFP consistently for just over 3 weeks, I've noticed a couple of things:

1. My normal pre-MFP eating habits weren't providing me with enough protein throughout the day.
2. I tend to start my day with carb-heavy breakfasts that contain very little protein.
3. If I increase my protein intake at breakfast, I tend to feel fuller for longer throughout the day.
4. On the days that I meet my daily recommended protein intake, I generally don't snack at night. And if I do, I tend to eat much less at night than normal.

I'm not sure if increasing your protein intake will help you cut back on night time snacking, but it certainly seems to be working for me.

billglitch

i used to be a night time snacker but i eat low carb high fat since january and rarely have craving or hunger at night