Dinner Time

I use a couple strategies for the evening. I'm hungrier later in the day, so I usually skip breakfast, eat a small lunch, and don't snack, or eat a very small snack, during the day so I can save up calories for the evening. That way I can have a large dinner and a good size evening snack. It's just what I prefer. I also plan out my dinners for the week - it helps keep me from just grazing all evening if I have a good dinner planned out (I get to look forward to it all day) and I can make sure I have a good deal of veggie sides available (they bulk up my meal with few calories). I keep filling snacks on hand so I can have a bedtime snack and feel satisfied (and less likely to keep going back for more) on less. I don't log anymore (I've been at maintenance for quite a while now), but prelogging meals and snacks so you can see how much you get to eat is very useful too.

Basically, plan, plan, plan, and if you find your appetite is highest at night, go with it - save calories for the evening. Good luck!

CausticRed wrote: »

I'm not even hungry, I think I'm just bored. I don't know what to do to stop the eating when I'm bored habit...

After dinner brush your teeth and floss and then go for a walk

I've found it to be based on two things: habit, and feeling deprived. When I only eat 600 calories from 8am-5pm I get home and feel entitled to eating whatever because I'm hungry darn it! And I have always been one to snack.

Breaking this is tricky, first make sure you're having enough through the day. I don't just mean if you're hungry, truly make sure you have had plenty of protein and calories at lunch and perhaps add in a good snack at 3 or 4 before the gym. The rest is mental willpower. I don't keep treats in the house except yogurt anymore, occasionally mini lara bars. But I log it before I eat it to make sure it fits in my calories. If there is room, I eat until there isn't anymore haha. But I don't see THAT as negative.

CausticRed wrote: »

I usually eat pretty well during the day, log everything like I should, a reasonable amount of calories for lunch and dinner.

But when I get home it's like, I eat everything in site. I have no self control. Even when I go to the gym and workout, I still just go home and eat whatever.

Any ideas on how I can stop this destructive behavior? Does anyone else do this?

This is me. Every single day.

I have the exact same problem. On track all day and once I get home, before dinner, BAM, I ransack the pantry. Crackers, peanut butter, anything. I've been trying to get dinner ready earlier, no later than 7, and have been having a protein shake when I walk in the door and start prep. No great solution, but I understand.

I go home from work and prepare my meal. The effort of preparing my meal involves chopping and weighing a lot of vegetables and takes too long, but the 'busy work' of it seems to build up a mental expectation of food such that the final product of all that bulk, fiber, and nutrition fills my belly with satisfaction while my regularly scheduled dessert of sweet prunes serves to satisfy any sweet cravings and top off the tummy. It's actually pretty easy for me to stop eating after all that effort.


I have a cardio machine in my living room called a "strider", which provides a low impact and fairly low intensity burn. I can finish dinner then use the strider for 30 minutes. That keeps my feet and hands busy and gets me tired enough to sleep well.

dmspurli wrote: »

One solution that has helped me is to stop buying snacks. When I get bored or start craving stuff like cookies, chips, etc, I go to the pantry and look at what I DO have and then walk away bc it's all healthy stuff and I don't want that!

Ditto. Or I eat some tomatoes and do way less damage than I would have with chips or oreos. There is not really a single easily accessible snack in my apartment. Ever.

If your bored try to find a few things to keep you busy. When I get bored I sip on water or tea to stop my self from going over.

It's just habitual behavior. ..habits are hard to break, but it can be done. .you just have to do it. ..if it's boredom you have to find other things to do. I have a long to do list and tackle bits and pieces of it every evening when I get home to keep me occupied.