SAY "NO" TO LATE NIGHT SNACKING -- APRIL 2018 CHALLENGE

Tankiscool wrote: »

Help me understand were you all are coming from? What is it about not snacking at night that affects your weight loss goals? Not to be "that guy" but why not say yes to late night snacking? I have lost almost 80 pounds of fat and I eat late at night. If you stay within your calorie limit I'd say go ahead and do it.

Look at it as a treat to end your long day. Psychologically I'd say it be even better, because if you eliminate it all together the more frequent those late night binges will happen, for instance that friend we all had growing up whose parents didn't let them eat/drink candy, soda, meat, whatever and when they came over to your house and you had it they ate as much as they could. Instead of feeling that irking feeling when your spouse goes to grab a late night snack and you cant have one, why not have be something to look forward to and not have that feeling of disappointment when you do break the streak?

You've made some really good points. I've been in this challenge almost a year and I agree with what you've said 100%. Each of us in this group has a personal definition of what late night snacking means for us, so I only speak for myself when I explain why I am here and how it helps me.

For years I called myself a midnight refrigerator raider. It didn't matter if I ate 1500 or 5000 calories in a day, I consumed food, and sometimes lots of it, in the middle of the night. My snacking wasn't sitting and watching TV and eating a few hundred calories extra. I was a hard core night eater, even to the point of padlocking my cabinets and refrigerator at night for a period of time to try to control my night eating.

For some reason unknown to me, the compulsion to get up and eat in the middle of the night gradually went away after years of doing it, but I still want to eat late at night and I plan for that as you suggest. I eat before I go to bed. Why I am in this group is that once in a while I awaken in the middle of the night and want to eat and I tell myself that I have to record a number for others to see if I get up and eat. I can usually talk myself out of it, sometimes I can't. Hence my numbers of 3 episodes of late night snacking so far this month.

As I said at the beginning, I speak only for myself. Everyone in this challenge is unique and has a different story of what late night snacking means to them. Your question about why we belong to this challenge is asked from your point of view what you believe late night snacking to be and how best to handle it. That's what we do here. We define what late night snacking is for us and how to handle it.

Congratulations on your almost 80 pound loss. As my old Weight Watcher leader would say, that's 320 sticks of butter lost. I've lost about 260 sticks myself and some of that loss is attributable to this challenge.