Late night eating

Littleloz34

Does anyone find that the evening times : ie 6pm onwards is when you tend to be hungrier and crave food ? What do you do to handle this ?

MaltedTea

Drink water. Get in some fiber. Take a quick walk or run stairs. Find something else to do that moves me towards my long term life goals.

But if I still can't shake it after all that? I'll eat some of whatever it is...and, if needed, adapt my exercise/nutrition throughout the week based on my MFP tracking 🤷🏿‍♀️

janejellyroll

I eat dinner later in the day specifically for this reason.

AnnPT77

Good suggestions above. In addition to that, there are other common possibilities:

1. Hunger is a response to fatigue (body seeks calories for energy). Late in the day is the time of increasing fatigue.

How is your sleep, both quantity and quality? How is your stress level in other ways (also increases fatigue, managing it more effectively can reduce fatigue)? How big is your calorie deficit, i.e., how fast are you trying to lose (calorie deficit is a form of stress)? Have done anything else (like ramping up exercise) that could be increasing physical or psychological stress or fatigue?

2. Hunger can be a function of boredom or habit: Many of us have become adjusted to a habit of doing something sedentary (TV, gaming, computer) with snacks alongside, or of using snacks as an entertainment in the evening. If any of these are in play, it can be helpful to adopt/resume a hobby that requires clean hands (sketching, needlework, playing a musical instrument, etc.) or creates dirty ones (painting, carpentry, gardening, etc.). It's usually easier to break a habit by making a replacement positive habit, rather than trying to just stop the undesired habit.

For me, some of these were factors. Early on, it was particular doom if I was fatigued to start with, then had some alcohol (even a reasonable amount, within my calories, because it lowered my inhibitions to snacking just that meaningful extra 2% that put me over the edge). I'm not suggesting that alcohol is in your mix, but answering your "Does anyone find that . . . " question with what I personally found, in my case. Just realizing that that combo created dangerous conditions was enough to help me to avoid unplanned snacking.

Also, and this may be truly individual and idiosyncratic to me, I found that if I ate a solid breakfast with a decent amount of protein, then more protein through the day, I was less likely to be crave-y in the evening. Eating fruit (anytime during the day) helped reduce cravings for less nutrient-dense sweets. Eating a volume of veggies at dinner also helped my evening appetite levels. 🤷‍♀️

MsWax

I wouldn't say I'm hungrier then, but I do crave junk food in the evenings. My solution is to exercise then instead of sit on the couch and watch TV...it kills 2 birds with 1 stone. I find including a friend in my evening work-outs also helps to hold me accountable.

I also try to save enough calories for a "safe" snack after dinner. I've found that certain foods will trigger more of a binge rather than satisfy a craving, so I'm trying to stay away from those rather than set myself up for failure.

cwolfman13

newme32blonde wrote: »

Does anyone find that the evening times : ie 6pm onwards is when you tend to be hungrier and crave food ? What do you do to handle this ?

We usually have dinner around 7:30 or 8:00. Kids start getting ready for bed around 8:15 so I or she will help with showers, etc while the other cleans up the kitchen and whatnot. They are lights out at 9 which is when my wife and I watch our evening show and we have our desert. Eating anytime before 7 is just completely impractical for us...and 7 would be pushing it most nights as well.

The earliest I get home is 5:30 and it's more like 6:30 on nights my kids have soccer practice.

gceinca

I have also found eating dinner later really helps. In fact, I found shifting all my meals helps.
A late morning breakfast, mid afternoon lunch and dinner between 7 and 8. I usually try and "save" 100 calories for a snack. A piece of fruit, nonfat Greek yogurt or a few sugar free popsicles.

cdemars763

After reading the other comments I think I realize that my situation is simply a bad habit. I have exercise equipment in my living room set up to be able to watch TV while using them but when I come home tired from a physical job I tend not to do that.
I think I'll make an extra effort to try to get back in a good habit of doing that rather than snacking.

thisvickyruns

newme32blonde wrote: »

Does anyone find that the evening times : ie 6pm onwards is when you tend to be hungrier and crave food ? What do you do to handle this ?

No, but I eat my evening meal between 6.30 and 7, and its my biggest meal of the day.

88olds

Eat dinner later and plan a couple of snacks.

I’m not very good at the “just say no” strategy. What I am good at is delay. I plan an evening snack that’s about 7% of my calories that I eat about 8-8:30. I also have something that’s about 50 calories that I can have just before bed if needed. Sometimes that puts me a few calories over. But that’s better than making myself crazy fighting a high stress fight with myself just before bed.

Plus, maybe look at your overall calorie target. If you’re aiming at rock bottom trying to get to goal in a hurry, that usually doesn’t work.

ninerbuff

I ALWAYS eat after 6pm. Dinner starts at 7pm or later and I usually snack up to 11pm. It's my habitual behavior. To help offset calories, I DON'T eat traditional morning breakfast. My first meal isn't till after 12pm.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Siberian2590

Late night eating (10pm on) is what's killing my diet. I exercise in the afternoon, and I eat dinner about 7:30, but after watching TV for a couple of hours, I'm hungry again.

I'm still recovering from back surgery and walking is still unstable and painful, otherwise I would go for a walk around the neighborhood.