How to not snack after dinner and blow your calorie intake.

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brittmcleod123
brittmcleod123 Posts: 3 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I find it really hard in the evenings not to snack. Does anyone have any methods to refrain from doing this? I also have to make my partners dinner and I end up snacking on his ( as he gets home late ) and then end up about 200 over my calorie goal ( 1700 ) every day. I am not sure how to do my evenings better as I find I just snack and snack after dinner. How do others avoid this? If I try to eat more protein through the day it doesn't help as then my calories are even higher as it doesn't stop me snacking.
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Replies

  • brittmcleod123
    brittmcleod123 Posts: 3 Member
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    Thanks so much for all the replies so far guys, so appreciate it :)
  • JJordon
    JJordon Posts: 857 Member
    edited April 2018
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    Gallon of water, in a jug. Keep on sipping or chugging. That's how I do it.

  • Momepro
    Momepro Posts: 1,509 Member
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    What are you snacking on? Aside from your second meal with your partner. Why are you eating? Be very specific; hungry, habit, bored, tv zombie snacking, sweet craving... How are you measuring it?
    Start weighing out servings of your snacks and logging why you are eating them. Once you do that, you can work on figuring out alternatives and solutions that are good for you. Can you make yourself just a small snack at your "normal" mealtime to tide you over until you can eat with your partner? If not, can you prepare a carefully budgeted snack to eat with your partner? Only you can come up with solutions that will work, but only after you figure out why you are eating in the first place.
  • TonyB0588
    TonyB0588 Posts: 9,520 Member
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    brittmcleod123 wrote: »
    I find it really hard in the evenings not to snack. Does anyone have any methods to refrain from doing this? I also have to make my partners dinner and I end up snacking on his ( as he gets home late ) and then end up about 200 over my calorie goal ( 1700 ) every day. I am not sure how to do my evenings better as I find I just snack and snack after dinner. How do others avoid this? If I try to eat more protein through the day it doesn't help as then my calories are even higher as it doesn't stop me snacking.

    What time are you having dinner? Could you try having it a bit later so there's not so much time after for snacking?
  • mjbnj0001
    mjbnj0001 Posts: 1,091 Member
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    I save up a few cals for evening snacking. I try to limit the snacks to something constrained, such as citrus fruit (orange, clementine, grapefruit [that I eat as if it were an orange]), apples, celery, or --- prunes). In addition, esp. in these cooler months, I like warm decaf tea at night rather than coffee (reg or decaf). Or even various herbal teas. The drinks seems to satisfy my impulses for snacking. And of course, there's the occasional "real treat" ...

    My usual pattern is a good breakfast, light lunch, regular dinner, and evening snack.
  • ceiswyn
    ceiswyn Posts: 2,256 Member
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    If you know you snack in the evening, then just eat a little less during the rest of the day to save up some calories for your evening snacks.

    It’s a lot easier to work with your habits than to try to change them!
  • auroralite2
    auroralite2 Posts: 3 Member
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    I found my weakness is chocolate so I just indulge without over doing it. I have a hot chocolate made with cocoa powder (barely a tsp) and two sugars a small amount of milk and mostly hot water. I found this way I have something without going crazy.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,442 Member
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    ceiswyn wrote: »
    If you know you snack in the evening, then just eat a little less during the rest of the day to save up some calories for your evening snacks.

    It’s a lot easier to work with your habits than to try to change them!

    This is me. I push breakfast back as far as possible, usually 9:30 or 10:00, lunch around 1:00, dinner around 8:00, and I save 200-300 calories for dessert every night.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,426 Member
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    I plan to have a snack.
    Are you bored? Hungry?
    Maybe chew some gum, drink tea or a big glass of water. Get busy with some other activity.
    If you want to snack you could munch on some low calorie vegetables.
  • Chunkahlunkah
    Chunkahlunkah Posts: 373 Member
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    Is the additional snacking harming your weight loss? What MFP is giving you is just a generic estimate based on some personalized info. It’s possible that you don’t need to limit yourself to 1700 a day to lose at your selected pace. And even if it’s slowing you down a bit, is the snacking worth the slower pace? Sometimes it is.

    If it’s not, good suggestions here to try out. :) My vote would be to cut out some calories earlier in the day to save them for at night. Unless you don’t even like snacking at night all that much. Then it would make more sense to just stop it. ;)

    Way back, I used to snack at night. It wasn’t causing a calorie issue (I was fine with my weight), but I wanted to break the habit. So I started having tea at night and reading instead. After a month or so, the night snacking habit was broken. Basically all that ended up happening though is I moved my calories from night time until during the day. Since I’d always eaten at night, I wasn’t a breakfast eater back then. Ending the night eating turned me into a breakfast eater bc I’d wake up hungry.
  • Iamnotasenior
    Iamnotasenior Posts: 234 Member
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    I have the same cravings to snack while watching TV in the evenings (a lot of food commercials on TV). A hot drink helps tremendously (as does watching something without commercials). I'll usually have a cup of sugar free hot cocoa and measure out a serving of pretzels or something salty and crunchy to have with my sweet drink.
  • bobshuckleberry
    bobshuckleberry Posts: 281 Member
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    Preplan your day and include a snack or snacks.

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