Evening snacking

cactusdove

I would love to be in your group. I struggle with snacking in the evening. I do great all day, but when the sun goes down, boy! I lose my will power.

kommodevaran

I don't know about any groups, but I have noticed this: "Do great" usually means "deprive myself". Make sure you aren't aiming to undereat, or cutting out food you like, or eating strange food or at strange times. MFP is just a tool, you have to use it correctly for it to work optimally.

colingrace08

Halo top ice cream is a must! At night I get bored and hunger sets in. I eat a full pint every night and it blunts the craving the highest calorie tub I believe is 380 cals for the whole thing

KateBoss7521

Avoid buying snacky foods and keep your fridge stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables— this has helped me tremendously! If I have a bag of chips or Hershey’s kisses sitting on the counter, it’s much harder to reach for that bag of carrots. Don’t deprive yourself completely either though. I just buy one single serve package of chips and work them into my diet in moderation. It’s much easier to break those old habits by keeping the junk food out of the house for a while.

jenpinch1

Yeah I'm an evening snacker. What works is having brunch instead of breakfast and then dinner as late as possible and then I have a lot of calories spare for my 'lunch' in the evening. I find it easier to deny food in the morning than in the evening. On a weekend I might have something very low calorie like vegetable soup and then I have spare calories for things like low cal popcorn or chocolate rice cakes.

Just depends if you are a night owl or early riser I think. Some people can't cope without a big early breakfast, you need to work out what's more important to you. If I have days where I eat early and that doesn't work out, I drink soda water or take myself off to bed early.

wryone4

I suggest building a sensible evening snack into your food plan. I do that and it helps. And, after I enjoy it, if I still crave more snacking, I brush my teeth. That tends to signal an end to eating and knowing the minty taste won't mingle well with food, it tends to be enough incentive.

getalife9353

Keep a glass or bottle of water near by in the evenings. Instead of reaching for a snack, drink some water. It's worked for me. But for this to work, I think you need to make sure you are not being overly restrictive with your meals during the day. I also don't keep snack food in the house. If you don't want to totally give up the evening snack, build it into your daily plan.

tpspiege

This is something I've struggled with for years, eat really well all day and then as the day starts to wind down I'm almost unconsciously grabbing a couple chips here, a stick of sting cheese there, a handful of something else there, and before I know it (if I log it all in MFP) I just turned a nice 400 calorie deficit for the day into a slightly over MFP target.

I can't say this is my "forever" habit yet, but it's trending well so I'll share...

The last couple weeks I've found that I'm able to significantly urge my snacking temptations in the evening my downing a large glass of water with 2tsp of Metamucil powder, followed by another glass of cold water and then waiting at least 20minutes. Only 50 calories, delivers much needed fiber (which I tend to run short of without fiber supplements) and the combination of fiber and water, once registered by your digestive system and brain (hence the 20minutes wait) seems to tame down the perceived need for a snack.

MamaMc3

I agree with building the evening snack into your plan for the day. Sometimes I just want to munch on something at night, so I budget about 100 calories for a snack. Sometimes even something like a sugar free popsicle is enough to get me past that craving.

wizzybeth

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an evening snack