Excessive Night Eating!

dont buy junkfood lol

Saw an item on TV called a 'Kitchen Safe' It was on a show called "I Want That!" It locks for a set amount of time that you set it for, so it can be locked during the evening!

What works best for me is not to give myself permission to snack, especially after dinner. Unfortunately, it seems like letting a particularly needy and undisciplined genie out of the bottle if I let myself do it.

I know limiting eating to meals ain't everyone's thing, but it works for me. It allows for a reasonably substantial dinner, which works out well.

clean your teeth at 8.45

From personal experience, I have learned that the main reason you get cravings for food is not enough calories during the day. This forces me to overeat at night.

Another problem is that when we start logging food and going on a caloric deficit, we just aren't used to eating "less food". For this purpose, I recommend for a couple of weeks eating at maintenance or decreasing your goals to only 1/2 lbs per week and go from there.

Hope this helps.

If I'm out of calories for the day, and really don't want to go over (when I know I'm not hungry... Just a bad craving) I brush my teeth, I use a super minty paste, never want to eat after that!

Either you eat out of pure habit then, or you eat because you're hungry.

If you're hungry, you need to look over when, what and how much else you eat during the day.

If it's psychological only, you have to find the reason and break the habit, or break it without finding the reason. This may sound dense, but it really is this simple.
What causes you to lose self-control, why do you want to give in?
Why do you label things as non-junk and junk?

The more you tell yourself something should be forbidden, the more your mind is focussed on those food items, and the more you will crave them. If you reverse it by thinking of what you are allowed to eat, you will want to eat those items, whatever they may be.

Breaking habits is difficult, but you are successful if you do it step by step. If you want to figure out how to change, you will. No one here can tell you exactly what will work for you, but you can get ideas and then need to claim responsibility yourself, figure out your own situation. Good luck.

I eat a serving and a half of Ben & Jerry's, plus another 1/2 serving of gelato every night before bed. It hasn't hampered my goals in the least bit, because it's part of my daily intake... Make room for the foods you like and enjoy. You won't sabotage your progress because you ate "junk" food at 9pm. You sabotage your progress because you are overeating. If you eat "healthy" food at 9pm and it puts you over your caloric goals, you will still gain weight. Overeating is overeating, no matter the source...

Brush your teeth at 8:30 pm, lay down in bed, eat a mint, put on music, drink 1 glass of water, relax and do a quiet activity before you sleep.

almost forgot! well done on your weight loss , you look great

taunto wrote: »

From personal experience, I have learned that the main reason you get cravings for food is not enough calories during the day. This forces me to overeat at night.

Another problem is that when we start logging food and going on a caloric deficit, we just aren't used to eating "less food". For this purpose, I recommend for a couple of weeks eating at maintenance or decreasing your goals to only 1/2 lbs per week and go from there.

Hope this helps.

Very sound advice!

I read on a similar post to this to try drinking a glass or two of water because sometimes at night we might feel hungry, but really just be thirsty/dehydrated. Plus the water could help make you feel full for long enough to get over the cravings.

It sounds to me that you're getting hungry at night and binge eating because you are not eating enough/the right kind of food.

This is a common issue with people who crash diet. You're "good" all day and then absolutely ravenous - and eat everything in sight!

Avoid this by either raising your calorie goals (instead of setting it to 2 lbs a week loss, try 1 lb, etc) or just eating more of the good kind of food, such as protein. If you're staying within your calories during the day but you're nutritionally deficient and not hitting your macros, you WILL just keep getting hungry. If you try to eat protein with every meal, you should be so full by the end of the day you can't imagine eating anymore, but you will still be within your calorie goals.

I try to eat as many grams of protein as I weigh in lbs. This would be 130 grams. I usually hit around the 100 mark (it's hard to do) but it makes me so full I never need to binge eat. I also eat about 6 small meals a day and aim for at least 20g of protein in each meal.

Juvenica wrote: »

u kidding ?? if he goes 2 bed at 8:30 he'll probably wake up at 2 a.m craving whatever he can find . so , I would advice as previously mentioned make sure u make room for it , eat less during the day, buy less junk food ( if you don't have it in your house you're less likely to go out at 9 p.m to buy it) , and last but not least , read the nutritional values of everything you eat, u'll soon come to realize they're not worth the calories and fat they have.

Laying down in bed does not automatically mean sleep. It is quieting the body and mind a good hour or two before sleeping, establishing a new routine that can help get rid of his old habit of snacking after 9:00 pm. Just a suggestion. I mean, this works for me. I get ready for bed and then lay down/read a book/do homework for two to three hours and then I sleep around 11:00pm-12:00 am. If you really want to get rid of a habit, establish a new routine/activity that gets you away from the kitchen and keep your mind off food. If you still want to eat junk, then just fit it in your calories.