Night eating/binging

If you like eating at night, eat less during the day so that your daily calories fit into your goal.

What do you binge on? Are there specific foods you can remove from the house and eat them only on occasion?

For example I don't bring a big bag of potato chips into the house only one single serving when I want chips with a sandwich.

tlw7 wrote: »

It's not just eating at night..it's a binge-that walking won't take off the next day. You know if you binge. It's like nothing fills you up and you can't stop.

It's a habit. I know believe me. Only way I have been able to stop it is to simply lay down a hard rule - no eating after a certain time - like 7 or 8. This has nothing to do with "fitting it into your daily calories". This is just an issue of plain ol' discipline. Write notes on the refrigerator, put up mirrors everywhere. If all else fails, GET OUT OF THE HOUSE. Walk. Go to the gym. Go to the mall. Eventually you'll break it.

I (HAD) an annoying notorious habit of binging on "Carrot Cake". My psyche was using logic in this fashion: A Carrot is a VEGETABLE so it must be good for you. #EpicFail. I do love carrot cake, it's my favorite "Comfort Food", it relaxes my nerves. My other vice is Lay's Ridged BBQ Potato Chips, a potato is a good carb, #Fail. I will murder a whole family size bag in one sitting if I am stressing over something. So I realized that I have "Food Triggers". I now buy Microwave Popcorn to replace the chips. I also buy Natures Valley "Bars" to replace the Carrot Cake. I don't allow my body to get away with "Dictating" to me when to eat. I will not allow myself a "Bowl" of ice cream. I take a tablespoon and "Rake across the top", no digging or scooping. I allow only enough to successfully get a tablespoon from one side of the container to the other (Straight Across). It's about discipline with me. I LOVE to eat and I am good at it but I have to train myself to not overeat.

tlw7 wrote: »

I've had this issue for at least 12 yrs now..I don't know the trigger. It has become an almost unable to break habit. Gum doesn't work. I don't keep 'bad' foods in my house but eating even too much of good foods isn't good for you. I eat great all day..then after dinner I just crave food-doesn't matter. I'd prefer ice cream or cake or something really good but I don't keep that in my house so I'll just grab anything. It's such a strong craving/pull.

I've binged on celery until I vomited, I can relate to this.

I overcome it by fasting until 1pm so that I can eat 1/3 of my calories after dinner. Eat when you prefer to eat, just make it work with your macros.

I am up all night watching movies and ESPN and I have to always be eating or drinking. I'm not a huge fan of celery but I have now ended up cutting up 3 -4 cups of it and sit down with a huge glass of water and a huge cup of coffee. When I was a little girl I used to dip it in peanut...now that I'm cutting calories I dip my little celery chunks into salsa or mustard. And it works awesome for me. Cuz I love eating a shitload of food...especially at night. You should at least try it!
I also do it throughout the day. Or air popped popcorn. And I just sit and eat for hours, because I can, fin when the calories are that low. Also, drinking a ton of propel helps me because its delicious and no calories..and it fills me up while I'm eating like a pig. Good luck!

I always get cravings at night; it's when I get bored and just want to sit around and veg. Because of that, I only eat about 1/3 of my calories during the day. I keep my meals small (around 300-400 calories) so I can snack pretty much all evening. I tried to find foods that aren't super calorie-dense, like certain cereal or popcorn, so I can eat a lot of them without going over my limit. I also usually fit in a light workout in the evening, because any time spent exercising is time NOT spent eating ;-)
The other main thing I do to keep from over-indulging is just go to bed. I'm a bit of a night owl and I rarely fall asleep right away so forcing myself into bed can be tough, but I just try to suck it up. Try drinking some herbal tea or other non-caffeinated beverage, too - sometimes drinking liquids helps me curb my cravings.

It's a habit for a lot of people to eat when they have downtime in the evening.

Sometimes setting hard rules like 'no eating after a certain time' or 'no eating while the TV is on' or 'only eating at the table when home' will work.

Not having calorie dense 'cravy' items around that are easy to grab quick and munch on helps (in my case, this means any lunch meat or cheese I might use when doing meal prep is otherwise kept in the freezer, and no snack food in the house).

I'm a binge eater, too. I have a particular time of day that I'm weaker, too. It's not bedtime, but it is a daily time that I'm likely to eat when I don't want to. It's a mind game. I've had to analyze so much about what & why. It's different for everyone.

First we have to take a moment to consider if we are truly hungry. Binge eaters usually don't care about that little technicality. We'll eat so fast & so much so we won't think about whether we're hungry. First we have to slow down our actions & think about what we're doing. I've found bringing up MFP & log while I'm eating slows me down during snacking.

In time, I've noticed which snacks fill me up. Strangely, a glass of milk has satisfied my desire to snack multiple times.

Second, what if we aren't at all hungry? Knowing that doesn't curb the desire. We want what we want. This is going to be a longer fight. It takes a several weeks to break a habit. That becomes our goal. We have to will ourselves to the point where we break the habit of eating at bedtime, in front of the TV, at our computer, while cooking dinner...whatever the habit. Will power is the only answer to that...I think...

tlw7 wrote: »

I'm wondering how long it would take to break this habit. Because I've had a few times when I was successful and thought that I might actually be done with binging!

Anyways..last night was night 3 of not eating after dinner. Typically I'll still be hungry and eat a snack. I kept reminding myself that I wasn't hungry. Wish I'd see the scale move more in the direction I want!

I was pretty frustrated yesterday morning bc I saw a number on the scale I haven't seen since I was pregnant. Ugh. Hoping I can keep this up and get to where I'm proud of my body and my relationship with food.

Have you considered speaking with a therapist about your issues?