Complete newbie

Gottamunch

I've tried them all, slimming world, weight watchers, Rosemary Conley, had success, but always the weight creeps on without noticing until one morning I wakeup and my jeans don't do up any more - I hadn't even noticed them getting tight! This is it! Have loaded this on my phone and am not putting a thing in my mouth until I get my head round what I'm eating. The food diary is great! It's actually making me think about what I'm eating. I'm a 5 o'clock wolf down a sandwich kind of girl as I'm always starving then, but am ready for a proper meal in the evening. Need lots of help and support about how to combat that. Am looking forward to meeting you all and finding out what you do to fight your munchies. Oh and by the way, I absolutely hate to exercise, but have two young children that require taxi services every night of the week, so sometimes we're not eating until too late at night. Does anyone know if there's any truth in that rumour about eating late at night?

Happy Valentines by the way! :flowerforyou:

mmoyer1978

My biggest trigger was night-time eating. About 9pm after I put the kids to bed I would sit on the couch, watch TV and eat ice cream, potato chips, cookies- you name it. But after starting my food journal and realizing what I was doing, that pretty much put a stop to the night time eating. After dinner/dessert (you can still have dessert you just have to be responsible about it) I brush my teeth and drink water. Not the same thing, but it keeps you honest and full. Best of luck to you!

Elliebee22

Sounds similar to me! With me it's the fact I need to munch on something. People have recommended frozen grapes and raw carrot but the one for me is celery sticks and a low fat dip- perfect! It keeps me going, doesn't add a lot of calories and it satisfies the need for something crunchy

Happy Valentines to you too!

Cigazze

I found out that eating once every 3 hours not only speeds up your metabolism, increases your energy tenfold, but it also keeps you full on very little food i've been eating every three hours for about a month now and i get hungry every three hours like clockwork now seeing as i go to sleep at 10, and my last meal is around 7, i dont have late night cravings

the trick is to eat small for every meal i try for 300- 400 calories per meal (so if i eat out, i leave half of my food on my plate, or share with someone). and its not as difficult as it sounds either.. i mean, 300 calories is a slice of bread with cottage cheese on it, so that takes about 10 minutes to prepare, eat and clean up if you're busy, take tupperware containers with small meals in them... seriously, i cant believe how much energy i have nowadays because of it

oops, sorry... i've started ranting

good luck!! and happy v-day to you too

Zuznana

Hello. Welcome to MFP. I found that entering your food a day before always makes it easier. You know what you will eat and can plan the food so well, that you can even put sandwich in at 5 if you have calories left. If I don't plan ahead and eat first and log later, I'm very likely to go over my calories. And I have done few times, but still lost weight. Main thing is to think about this as lifestyle change and not dieting. So you can eat anything you like and with time, you will find ourself choosing healthier food anyway. I was so shocked to find how many calories some food has. Good luck.

Gottamunch

Thanks to all the above. It's great to have different tips from people. With me it's not that I have late night food cravings, it's the fact that I'm not getting home until nearly 9.00 pm some nights and then I have to start thinking about cooking a meal. I often blame my OH for being a diet sabatoeur as he is if the belief that unless he's had a proper cooked meal in the evening, he's being short changed, and then he's happy to tuck into french stick and cheese and a bottle of wine. It's so difficult to resist sometimes. I've done great resisting the french stick, mainly because it gives me indigestion, and the cheese doesn't sit very well late at night, but the red wine..... now that's a completely different matter.

I think the message here is slowly and surely isn't it? I like the idea of counting your food a day ahead, that makes loads of sense. It should make meal planning easier as well. My current system is along the lines of what do you fancy for tea? Let's see what's in the freezer. Being food aware I think is what this site is going to give me and I can't wait to see those pounds shedding. You all look like you've been working really hard.

Well done!