Nighttime Eating

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OBXbrit
OBXbrit Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Why? Why do I blow my diet at night?? After dinner until I go to bed is when I eat like a lumberjack on a sugar binge! I'm not! I'm a 61 year old 150 pound grandma. I lost thirty-four pounds counting calories - now I find myself gaining it back because of this nighttime eating problem.

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  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    I have to make sure I save calories to eat something at night. I can't be "done" after dinner because I would put myself in a similar situation.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,981 Member
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    Yeah, I have to "Close the Kitchen" after my after-dinner snack.

    I had to plan carefully for even distribution of calories, and I really just can't have goodies in the house or they get eaten. It's hard for me to stop once I start on certain foods, so they just stay at the store. :)
  • ata1anta
    ata1anta Posts: 115 Member
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    I have 2 or 3 ounces of fat free yogurt and a scoop of protein powder. That will carry me over until Breakfast.
  • MoveitlikeManda
    MoveitlikeManda Posts: 846 Member
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    I dont really eat much during the day (drink alot of coffee and water instead) and have a bigger dinner with several evening/bed time snacks as I find it impossible to just go to bed and not have a munch on something while watching tv.

    so when im logging properly (Im not atm) I always log my evening/bedtime snacks firrst thing in the morning.
    That way I know I can have them without going over and know exactly whats left to eat for dinner or whenever Im hungry any other time during the day
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,235 Member
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    This sounds bizarre, and may be my personal idiosyncrasy, but I found my evening cravings much reduced if I got a solid breakfast with plenty of protein, and enough protein spread through the day. Lots of low-cal high fiber veggies at dinner also helped.

    Satiation is very individual, though, so you might just take a look at your food diary and see if any patterns are there about your eating on better vs. worse craving days, in either what you ate, or when you ate it.

    Cravings can also be encouraged by stress, poor sleep, boredom or habit. If one or more of those are factors, strategies to change the root causes may help (like warm relaxing bath/shower, improved sleep habits, a new hobby (ideally one that requires clean hands like needlework or sketching, or creates dirty ones, like painting or gardening ;) )).
  • Andrea4456
    Andrea4456 Posts: 39 Member
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    I have the same problem!!

    I find the following things help me:
    - drink hot tea instead
    - go to bed early
    - drink a lot of water after/during dinner
    - keep binge tempting food out of the house
    - drink almond/cashew milk instead (it's filling w/o the carbs & calories)
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    This sounds bizarre, and may be my personal idiosyncrasy, but I found my evening cravings much reduced if I got a solid breakfast with plenty of protein, and enough protein spread through the day. Lots of low-cal high fiber veggies at dinner also helped.

    Satiation is very individual, though, so you might just take a look at your food diary and see if any patterns are there about your eating on better vs. worse craving days, in either what you ate, or when you ate it.

    Cravings can also be encouraged by stress, poor sleep, boredom or habit. If one or more of those are factors, strategies to change the root causes may help (like warm relaxing bath/shower, improved sleep habits, a new hobby (ideally one that requires clean hands like needlework or sketching, or creates dirty ones, like painting or gardening ;) )).

    I'm definitely in the group where my night eating is emotional rather than physical, and saving calories at night is essentially a coping mechanism rather than a solution. I'll eat when not hungry, but I guess that's why I'm here in the first place. xD
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,013 Member
    edited October 2018
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    I save 150-250 cals to eat after dinner. If I don't manage to save that much, I will have a square of dark chocolate and a cup of flavored hot tea, or a diet soda. Once I have spent those calories, I brush my teeth. It's weird how well this signals my brain that eating time is over.

    It may help to figure out if you are really hungry, if you aren't really hungry but there is an issue with what or when you are eating, or if these cravings are completely emotional or boredom eating. That will really affect the best way to solve the problem!
  • patrickaa5
    patrickaa5 Posts: 70 Member
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    I have to have a somewhat "full" feeling or I can't sleep. I usually pre-log what I'm going to eat in the evening. It makes it easier to tell how many calories I have available for regular lunch and dinner.
  • amgreenwell
    amgreenwell Posts: 1,268 Member
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    Find something else to do with your time. When you find yourself eating, pick up some hobby and do that instead. Also, get the food out of the house that you are binging on. Or try logging everything you eat for the entire day in the morning. Then you'll see what wiggle room you have and you can take a or walk or get other exercise to eat some more in the evenings
  • rgbmore
    rgbmore Posts: 85 Member
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    Do you have anything that stresses you out in the evening? Or any activities that inspire snacking? I could be full from dinner but if we are sitting down to watch a movie I am hungry for snacks!! So that could be something to look at and adjust for. As someone else said, maybe plan for an after dinner snack. Also, now that you've become a little used to chowing down after dinner, might take a while for your body to adjust to not having that fourth meal. Eventually it should ease up. Good luck!!
  • Danp
    Danp Posts: 1,561 Member
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    No matter how much I eat at breakfast or lunch I'm still really hungry at dinner and later at night.

    My solution to this is to eat pretty much all my calories (like 85% of them) at night. During the day I'll have coffee and maybe a piece of toast with for breakfast and usually skip lunch entirely or have a snack bar.

    This mean I can volume at dinner when I'm genuinely hungry and indulge my sweet tooth with a few fun size chocolates later at night.
  • kami3006
    kami3006 Posts: 4,978 Member
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    patrickaa5 wrote: »
    I have to have a somewhat "full" feeling or I can't sleep. I usually pre-log what I'm going to eat in the evening. It makes it easier to tell how many calories I have available for regular lunch and dinner.

    I do this as well. Helps me sleep.

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