Seemingly insatiable evening appetite

Aggressor04

I'm roughly 10lbs away from my weight goal. I've changed up my eating habits and work out to break the plateau but have noticed lately (within the last 2-3 weeks) I've been getting crazy hungry at the end of the day (from 5PM generally until 7 or 8PM). I don't have an issue with self control throughout the day but the evenings are a different story. Was looking to get some tips on evening appetite suppression.

Old_Cat_Lady

You're skipping dinner? 5pm to 8pm is dinner time for me. If you are eating dinner, have you tried drinking a full glass of water 30 minutes before dinner?

skymningen

I know my dinner needs to be much larger than lunch or breakfast. Usually larger than both together. So I try to keep enough calories available to have a dinner which satisfies me. I don't know why it is like that, but if I don't my self-control after (the too small) dinner is really, really strained.

TavistockToad

Aggressor04 wrote: »

I'm roughly 10lbs away from my weight goal. I've changed up my eating habits and work out to break the plateau but have noticed lately (within the last 2-3 weeks) I've been getting crazy hungry at the end of the day (from 5PM generally until 7 or 8PM). I don't have an issue with self control throughout the day but the evenings are a different story. Was looking to get some tips on evening appetite suppression.

what time do you eat?

4legsRbetterthan2

I too like to eat a big dinner. I typically eat light throughout the day and eat a large dinner. When I am trying to lose weight I find that not eating breakfast until late in the morning helps me stay withing goal and afford a larger dinner.

snickerscharlie

I'm an evening muncher, too. I just skip breakfast (a meal that I'm rarely hungry for anyway), have a good lunch and dinner with plenty of room left over for some snacks in the evening.

PennStateChick

I purposefully save calories for after dinner snacks (assuming you are eating dinner as others have asked). And honestly, I don't really try to keep it at "I'll have a cup of broccoli" bc I don't tend to find that satisfying. Lately, I have been eating one serving (28 grams) of unsalted cashews and one serving (15 grams) of chocolate chips. It's 230 calories, but I enjoy it and I am able to move on from snacking once I have it.

kommodevaran

Yes, when do you eat? Is it hunger or appetite? Are you eating enough, and well? How many calories are you planning to eat per day, and does the hunger make you eat more and/or other things than you had planned? What's your height and weight? If you are hungry because you are eating too little, you need to eat more. You don't need to suppress your appetite. There are no plateaus; weight loss slows down as you lose, but if you aren't losing weight, you aren't eating in a calorie deficit.

Holly_981

Brush your teeth and go to bed

Aggressor04

TavistockToad wrote: »

Aggressor04 wrote: »

I'm roughly 10lbs away from my weight goal. I've changed up my eating habits and work out to break the plateau but have noticed lately (within the last 2-3 weeks) I've been getting crazy hungry at the end of the day (from 5PM generally until 7 or 8PM). I don't have an issue with self control throughout the day but the evenings are a different story. Was looking to get some tips on evening appetite suppression.

what time do you eat?

I normally eat dinner around 5-5:30 if I leave work earlier then maybe 4:30

PennStateChick

Aggressor04 wrote: »

TavistockToad wrote: »

Aggressor04 wrote: »

I'm roughly 10lbs away from my weight goal. I've changed up my eating habits and work out to break the plateau but have noticed lately (within the last 2-3 weeks) I've been getting crazy hungry at the end of the day (from 5PM generally until 7 or 8PM). I don't have an issue with self control throughout the day but the evenings are a different story. Was looking to get some tips on evening appetite suppression.

what time do you eat?

I normally eat dinner around 5-5:30 if I leave work earlier then maybe 4:30

Are you eating enough during dinner? If you are eating between 4:30-5:30 and you are still hungry afterwards, perhaps you should be eating more as part of that dinner.

Sunna_W

It's your carbs / sugar. When you are hungry and eat sugar / carbs, they work short term not long term. When your blood sugar drops you are hungry again.

You could try the macros reserved for keto / paleo diets (low, low sugar/carbs and high protein/fat/fiber) and see if that helps:

(45% protein, 40% fat and 15% carbs/sugar).

See this website for a list of paleo websites:
http://paleoiq.com/best-paleo-diet-blogs/

Note: instead of carbs / sugar you snack on protein, animal fat and oils.

With this way of eating, I don't crave sugar (I have an entire box of Charms Wild Berry Blow Pops in my file drawer that I haven't touched since November because I don't crave sugar; I once measured my stress level by how many of them I consumed in one day); My moods are more even and I don't have blood sugar spikes and crashes; By consuming more healthy fats my joints don't hurt as much and I am more or less satiated on my allotted calories.

My snacks are usually peanut butter that contains only peanuts and peanut oil, oil cured olives and cheese.

marthall

Hi. I took a little look at your diary. You do a lot of exercise some days, and have some big calorie deficits. Since you are near your goal weight your are perhaps being too impatient, your body is demanding more calories to meet demand. If your diary is up to date and accurate then maybe you need to go for a more modest deficit and approach your goal a little more slowly. This may also help your goals of being generally fit (ie strong) for military service. What rate of weight loss are you losing at right now?

I also weight my calories towards the end of they day when I expect to feel more hungry, including a snack after dinner. I also try to delay my dinner if I can by 30-60 mins (sometimes I'm very ready for it).

I also find that if I exercise lots my appetite is much higher so whilst loosing weight I prefer frequent moderate cardio (brisk walking) over more intense exercise. I suspect that the exercise is more important to your goals than the weight, in which case shoot for a lower deficit (at least for a while).

Trying a lower carb approach may help (train the body to switch between dietary and stored fat), this certainly works for some.

Excellent job on the 55lbs down so far.

quiksylver296

4legsRbetterthan2 wrote: »

I too like to eat a big dinner. I typically eat light throughout the day and eat a large dinner. When I am trying to lose weight I find that not eating breakfast until late in the morning helps me stay withing goal and afford a larger dinner.

This^^

I'm up by 5:00 each morning, coffee around 7:00, breakfast about 9:30, lunch about 1:00, snack 3:00, dinner between 6:00 and 8:00 depending, and dessert after. Dinner/dessert is between 1000-1500 calories.