I’m in the danger zone for over eating

agree with above.

I also find it useful to save calories for a pre-bed snack. some do better by just eliminating it altogether, but for me i prefer just saving 100-150 calories (pre-logging things) for a snack.

If I'm out of calories and still hungry, a couple tricks that help me are drinking something calorie free/very low calorie or chewing gum.

Another thing you can do to help with that is pre-log your food the day before. Then if you get hungry between meals, you can find something from the next meal to have sooner. I pre-log every day so I can quickly see where I can move calories from if necessary. Pre-logging helps a lot if dinner plans come up too--I already know how many calories I can afford at a restaurant.

Hope those ideas will help.

Marisela170 wrote: »

I had that same issue and I found that finding something else to occupy myself really helped. Like reading or cleaning or something like that.

Ditto. If I get up and do something for 15-20 min, I find the thoughts usually go away.

One other thought ... are you eating close to daily calorie allowance? I fond that food thought issues like this usually happen if I have been undereating. If I consistently eat at calorie allowance + 40-50% of exercise calories, this typically does not happen.

goatelope wrote: »

Yes I have been eating less than normal due to not getting any exercise at all following knee surgery.

However - there are many days when I am full and then experience the cravings and wanting to binge / over eat. This evening for example I had a really nice quinoa and black bean stew, a plate of tomatoes, a small bowl of soup, and a couple of oatcakes - and yet I still found myself wanting to eat and eat, and had to work hard not to.

Can you see any kind of pattern in the meals you've found more filling, vs. leaving you with cravings, such as lower/higher fat or protein? The meal you mention sounds like it had a good bit of volume and fiber, which are the other common possibilities for things people find filling.

This may be personal idiosyncrasy, but I also found that what I ate earlier in the day could influence whether I got evening cravings. If I got a solid breakfast with protein, and protein through the day, evening cravings in general were less likely. If I ate enough fruit during the day, cravings for less nutrient-dense sweets (like candy, baked goods) were less likely.

That idea of distraction is a good one: Particularly useful is an attention-absorbing hobby that either requires clean hands (sketching, needlework, playing a musical intrument, etc.) or creates dirty ones (painting, carpentry, collage, etc.): Less compatible with simulataneous snacking.