Any tips on how to beat hunger at night?

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  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    I try to create room in my normal meals to allow that snack. But I have to know in advance what I may want to eat to balance it out and stay in a deficit. It is hard.

    I do try to cut off the time I eat the last thing of the day. I know it may be a myth but I did a lot of 10:00 to 11:00 p.m. eating and cutting this out has helped me a lot.

    I think this may be more mental but I like knowing I start eating the first thing on a completely empty stomach! I guess I call it - breaking fast in the morning.

    Yogurt is awesome but not satisfying for the late night snack. Hot chocolate is about 130 calories and in the winter I like this.

    Planning the snack is necessary especially if you are like me and have to have it later on after dinner is over.
  • malk2651
    malk2651 Posts: 55 Member
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    SLLRunner wrote: »
    SaraSteeves1993 wrote: »
    Casein shake, they fill you up and fuel your body through the night. There is good research out there about taking it at night. I don't personally take it unless I'm starving at night a few hours before I go to sleep

    Your body does not need to be fueled through the night, it fuels all on it's own. Whatever that research is, it's probably all myth. However, in case I'm wrong, can you please post your research links? :)

    I believe they were thinking of "fueling the body" in regards to muscle repair.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22330017
  • BodyByButter
    BodyByButter Posts: 563 Member
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    I don't try to avoid it. I just accept that I like having something to eat closer to bedtime and work it into my day. If you look at my food diary, you'll see that there is something under "snacks" every day that was most likely eaten before bed. I don't snack much throughout the day and I always have calories left over. Last night it was a 100 calorie English muffin, slice of fat free cheese, Egg Beater, milk.
  • _Waffle_
    _Waffle_ Posts: 13,049 Member
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    deirdrewilson wrote: »
    Any tips on how to beat hunger at night?
    You're trying to avoid over-eating. You're not fighting hunger. People in 3rd world countries are fighting hunger.

    Go to sleep, find a book to read. Stop using food as an emotional crutch and find something else to do to pass the time.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    I eat dinner at 9 pm, usually. Never get hungry before bed after that.

    I realize this wouldn't work for many people (I simply can't eat earlier most days and sometimes eat even later), but would suggest that if you know you will be hungry after dinner to save calories for a planned snack in the evening, kind of like how I will plan a snack in the late afternoon if I work out mid-day, since I know I will otherwise want to eat something before dinner.

    Also, be conscious that it might just be psychological and probably is somewhat (if you are eating a reasonable amount of calories you shouldn't be that hungry at any time). When we are used to eating at a particular time your mind can tell you are hungry then--this happened to me at various times when I first started and stopped as soon as I was used to my new eating schedule. Similarly, lots of time being bored or other emotional things can result in your mind signaling hunger. For many of us it's really easy to get the various signals confused and you have to teach yourself or train yourself out of it.

    What I did for my not-really-hungry-but-want-to-eat hunger feelings was either to find something else to do that would get my mind off of it or find something to nibble on that wouldn't involve many calories (like carrots). If it is after a substantial period without eating, though, I'd seriously consider just building in a snack.
  • NurseCU
    NurseCU Posts: 122 Member
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    _Waffle_ wrote: »
    deirdrewilson wrote: »
    Any tips on how to beat hunger at night?
    You're trying to avoid over-eating. You're not fighting hunger. People in 3rd world countries are fighting hunger.

    Go to sleep, find a book to read. Stop using food as an emotional crutch and find something else to do to pass the time.

    I need to hear things like this. Tough love.
  • nickatine
    nickatine Posts: 451 Member
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    sipping on a light beer slowly.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    edited January 2015
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    I save half of my calories for the evening. I eat half my calories for breakfast and lunch. Then I eat a big dinner and save ~200 calories for a snack around 8:45-9pm. Bed by 10pm.

    People don't gain weight because they eat late at night. They gain weight because they mindlessly eat late at night after already consuming their day's worth of calories throughout the day (aka overeating).

    I want to second the first world comment above. Chances are you've never experienced real hunger. Our version of hunger is not an emergency. If you're eating the amount of calories you're supposed to, you will not actually starve.

    It's ok to be a little hungry once in a while. If you are good and truly hungry, like headaches, nauseous, etc. type hungry, you should eat something, but usually we say we're hungry when we're really not. Most of the time its simply because your body is just used to a lot more food and needs some time to adjust to less food. I've gone to bed feeling "hungry" (stomach rumbling a little) and I wake up not hungry anymore. I actually like to get stomach rumbling hungry now before my meals. It makes them taste so much better and I enjoy eating them more.

    eta:
    Focus on more satiating foods like protein, fat, and fiber. That will prevent hunger from striking as quickly. But when you first start a diet, almost everyone has a period of time where they are a little hungry.

    Try drinking some water and distracting yourself. If you're not actually hungry, you might forget about it.

    If you will be eating in an hour, try to wait until the meal to eat. If your next meal is 3 hours away, try waiting a half an hour, drinking some water, then plan and prepare a snack.

    I promise, with the right macro settings (your protein/fat/carb ratio) and a little time, you should be able to restrict calories without feeling hungry all the time. If after a week, you're still ravenous, its time to look at the composition of your diet (and doing a sanity check to see if your calorie goal is too low).

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