SNACKING AT WORK! IT'S KILLING ME!

Bring your own snacks to work...ones that work for your calorie goal, but that you still enjoy enough to avoid the cheesecake and peanut butter cups.

Coffee and tea also work when I want "something" but don't want to spend a lot of calories.

I'm still struggling for a good solution to this. There is seriously SO MUCH junk food where I work and it's so close to my desk. I legit walk past it every time I leave my desk... which is about a hundred times a day because I manage a busy medical clinic. Nothing like mindless stress snacking to destroy a deficit.

I've started to budget my calories for a couple of hundred less than my goal so that when I grab a candy it's not driving me into a surplus. If I don't snack I just add the calories into my dinner so I'm not under-eating for the day.

As mentioned above tea/coffee with splenda and skim milk is filling and sweet but lower in cal than office snacks. Or gum/super strong breath mints...

the other thing I'm doing is not snacking in the morning. I'm hoping that if I can limit the snacks to a certain time of the day the damage will be less and also, if I can limit them to just the afternoon I'll be able to eliminate them altogether eventually. And I pack a high protein snack for the afternoons to fill myself up so I won't even have space for the candy/chocolate.

I've had the same problem. Oh, those people with candy bowls on their desks!

Anyway: You cut that sh1t out by cutting that sh1t out!

If you stop eating candy when you see it at work, you will stop wanting it. If you try it for a week, it will be easier the next and so forth.

I bring two pieces of fruit with me almost every day. Those are my only snacks.

Snacking at work was an issue for me when gaining weight, especially when I was there late, feeling sorry for myself, and hungry, but also if I just let myself mindlessly snack thinking "oh, a few peanut M&Ms won't matter," and then end up going back and back and back.

What I did was just decide I was only eating at planned mealtimes, period. It took a week or so of adjustment (I let myself have raw veg if hungry between meals at first, but got over the need pretty quickly), and now I tend not to even think about/notice the food around. If I think I'm hungry, I think about what I'm eating at my next meal.

I'm usually a person who preaches moderation and I'm a person who ALWAYS eats one of the free donuts or pizza slices when they're brought in by a sales rep (which only like once every 4-6 weeks thankfully). But in that situation, I think I'd go for a zero snacking policy. Or set rules for myself like one piece of candy per day. If that didn't work and I felt genuinely hungry during the work day I would do as others have suggested and bring in my own snacks & just stick to those.

I avoid bananas,they seem to make me hungrier for some reason,apples are the same😓 a good substitute I've found is beef jerky weighed out and I take that with me seems a little goes a long way

I agree with everyone else: healthy snacks, coffee/tea/other calorie free beverages (hot helps), gum, altoids, eat filling foods.

I actually have a candy bucket in my office, but I keep it stocked with mostly dark chocolate, which I find easier to eat 1 40-calorie piece compared to other sweets. I also have a not even one rule when I'm trying to get into healthier habits again or lose weight (like @Maxxitt said, it's easier to say no to bite 1 than 2-60).

I find that high volume (e.g. leafy greens, clear broths, etc.), high protein, whole foods (e.g. corn kernels instead of corn tortillas) help me feel more full, so I aim to make sure my meals only include those foods. My go to work lunch is grilled chicken breast with kale (or spinach or any greens really) and sweet potato or a corn and veggie salad. For dressing, I use balsamic vinegar (just the vinegar), lemon/lime juice or Trader Joe's Green Goddess dressing (it's only 20 calories for 2 tablespoons and actually delicious). It's a super filling lunch and very low calorie. For my afternoon snack, I'll have a boiled egg or greek yogurt and sugar snap peas or a mandarin orange or one piece of dark chocolate with 1/2 serving of almonds. That keeps me full, which helps manage the munchies. I do avoid bananas and apples (like @whitpauly) because they seem too high calorie given they don't help me feel full.

If all else fails and you have a day where you say "screw it, I don't care anymore" (which I do), the key is to still LOG EVERYTHING you eat--even if you have to guess at how much that was. It helps keep the afternoon/evening of eating all the foods from turning into the next day and then everyday. You might also be surprised that when you come back from your food haze you might still be able to salvage the day (or at least eat to TDEE instead of over). And, if the opposite happens and you see that you've actually gone way over then it's a good wake up call of how much it is impacting your goals. I know all this from experience, repeated and still repeating experience if I'm being honest.

The most important thing is to know that YOU CAN DO THIS! Just take it one moment at a time and test and adjust to find what works best for you personally.

Well you can always tell yourself you don't REALLY know where this stuff comes from, the people who bring it in. I mean, did the food come from a disgusting smoker's house where the ashtrays are overflowing? Did the food come from a cat horder house where the cats just jump everywhere and anywhere including the counters that the food sets on? Did the dog lick it? Did the vehicle the food traveled in a dirty grimy vehicle where little hairs are flying around? You get the picture. (fwiw, I one time ate a piece of lovely dessert --at work-- and then found out later it was from a filthy, dirty, bug infested hoarder home. Never snacked at work again unless I brought or bought myself.)

By personality, I'm a rule follower. Whether I make rules or someone else does, I follow them. So I made a rule for myself that I don't eat food at work unless I have brought it and it is portioned out. It has saved me from eating candy because it's brought to me, donuts because my boss bought them, etc.

@Camaramandy647, I, too, had/(have?) the SAME problem. I felt like corporate America is out to get me! Treats everyday, leftover meeting food, etc. Then one day not long ago I just decided that I was NOT going to allow them to decide what I put in my mouth. I don't care if it's free. I put up a mental wall. I plan my meals, bring my lunch. If my department has a celebration, I will modestly participate. If someone else is celebrating or baking for no reason, I just say say no thanks, not my celebration. Not in my plan today.

For over a month I have been easily ignoring bounty. However, though I haven't caved yet, recently my resolve has started fraying.... Good luck. And thanks for sharing.