9pm Munchies
Sophi_allheart
Posts: 45 Member
So I get home around 5 and eat dinner. I feel fine, then somewhere around 9pm I start craving a snack. It's very easy to walk to the convenience store near my house and buy a candy bar or bag of chips, etc. What are some tips I could follow to help with late night munchies, so I can hit my calorie goal and actually lose weight?
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Replies
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Ask yourself are you really hungry, or are you just bored?8
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Are you able to put aside some of your calories from during the day so you can have a snack at that time?9
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Maybe eat dinner later?
But there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a snack at 9pm if it fits your calories and overall nutrition - plan for it rather than fight it perhaps?
Making dieting easier helps with sustainability, if you have to struggle every day the chances of failure go up.15 -
I eat an ice cream sandwich every night at 9pm. It fits my calorie goal as I leave room for it. I've lost 200lbs having one of those evetunight for years. The deficit is all that matters not when you eat your food.19
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Make a herbal tea and eat ginger after 8 pm. Trader Joe's or make your own.0
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Have your treat at home ready for you. You can also change into your pajamas or nightgown after dinner to signal you aren’t going back out.9
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Well I'd say it's pretty normal to want food again four hours after eating.
Either plan your day to have dinner later, work a small snack in (cottage cheese and peaches comes to mind) OR how about going to bed?
9PM is my bedtime these days. When I stayed up late, nothing good ever happened.15 -
I plan for a snack. Sometimes it's popcorn, last night it was 2 cookies. Something with protein can be good: cheese stick, greek yogurt, hot chocolate, etc...3
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Sophi_allheart wrote: »So I get home around 5 and eat dinner. I feel fine, then somewhere around 9pm I start craving a snack. It's very easy to walk to the convenience store near my house and buy a candy bar or bag of chips, etc. What are some tips I could follow to help with late night munchies, so I can hit my calorie goal and actually lose weight?
5 PM is pretty early for dinner and 9 PM is four hours later so I'd say it would be pretty normal to be hungry or at least peckish four hours after you've last eaten. Maybe eat dinner later or reserve calories for a snack around 9.9 -
I make dinner my largest meal of the day. I also eat dinner around 5 and don't go to bed until after 10, so half my dinner (dessert?) is snacks that I graze on, like raw fruits and veggies, plain yogurt, nuts, and cereals/popcorn (in various combinations). I like grazing, so this works.
I also rarely just watch TV in the evenings. I tend to like to be more involved with my entertainment, so I read, play computer games, workout, or do schoolwork instead when I have a night at home.5 -
There are many ways to work your calorie budget. You just have to figure out which way works for you. If you want to keep eating at 5 and do not think you can leave enough calories for a candy bar or a bag of chips each day without being too hungry then another idea is save enough calories for a 50 calorie snack each evening plus 50 more. Then every 4th night treat yourself to a 250 calorie snack. This way you are breaking up the habit but still having a treat. It is called banking calories. Another way of looking at is delaying gratification easier by having a plan to get the treat you want.6
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a cup of hot tea and small piece of fruit works for me.2
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Leave x number of calories available either by not eating them earlier or exercising for them. No trick needed.3
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I pre-log a 100-250 cal evening snack first thing in the morning to save those calories. If for some reason I end up not managing to eat them anyway during the course of the day, a can of Coke Zero when it's warmer or a cup of tea with a Dove Dark Chocolate Promise or two (40-80 cals) usually takes care of the crave-iness without squandering any deficit.3
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I'd plan to have a snack then. I like air popped popcorn. A cup of tea is also nice.
Or give yourself a manicure. You can't eat with wet nails.4 -
I have a sweet tooth so I eat chocolate bars every night. Every. Single. Night.
I buy packs of the 'fun size' bars and keep them in the fridge. How many of them I have depends on how many calories I have left over from the day. Might be 1, might be 6 if I feel like it and I have the calories left over.
They're only about 80cal each so there's always a way to save up that much so that I never feel like I'm depriving myself of a treat.11 -
I work really late and i got into the habit of eating dinner around 11pm/midnight every night. It was fine for calories- but I noticed I wasn’t sleeping as well - dunno why. so I started eating earlier and if I got the munchies after work around midnight - I do herbal tea and it’s worked out well.3
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I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but next time you're having a hunger pang at night just ... don't eat. In fact, don't eat anything at all until the next morning. If you can stomach that (so to speak) for a week or two, you may find yourself part of the teeming horde that has done away entirely with nighttime snacking by simply not eating.
Once the brain and body figure out there's no food coming, they mostly stop being whiny about it.
This is the whole secret of IF - your mind and body adjust to periods when they're not gonna get fed and largely quit protesting. And then ... you're free. It's very liberating, and great for weight loss.
The key is to not give in. Be firm and don't let stomach juices make the rules. You make the rules.
If you decide you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to snacking. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a few more ounces during this test.14 -
I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but next time you're having a hunger pang at night just ... don't eat. In fact, don't eat anything at all until the next morning. If you can stomach that (so to speak) for a week or two, you may find yourself part of the teeming horde that has done away entirely with nighttime snacking by simply not eating.
Once the brain and body figure out there's no food coming, they mostly stop being whiny about it.
This is the whole secret of IF - your mind and body adjust to periods when they're not gonna get fed and largely quit protesting. And then ... you're free. It's very liberating, and great for weight loss.
The key is to not give in. Be firm and don't let stomach juices make the rules. You make the rules.
If you decide you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to snacking. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a few more ounces during this test.
I was just going to suggest this but you beat me to it. Simple solution.7 -
Wow, thanks everyone! I don't know why I haven't tried reserving some calories for a late night snack. I will probably start with that, so I am at least hitting my calorie goal. I might try the "just don't eat" method as well, but we'll see. My schedule is changing up starting next week, so hopefully it will be easier to avoid the late night munchies after that!4
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I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but next time you're having a hunger pang at night just ... don't eat. In fact, don't eat anything at all until the next morning. If you can stomach that (so to speak) for a week or two, you may find yourself part of the teeming horde that has done away entirely with nighttime snacking by simply not eating.
Once the brain and body figure out there's no food coming, they mostly stop being whiny about it.
This is the whole secret of IF - your mind and body adjust to periods when they're not gonna get fed and largely quit protesting. And then ... you're free. It's very liberating, and great for weight loss.
The key is to not give in. Be firm and don't let stomach juices make the rules. You make the rules.
If you decide you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to snacking. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a few more ounces during this test.
Yeah, unless your hunger is interfering with your ability to sleep, there is absolutely no harm that is going to come to someone because they're going to bed hungry (barring specific health conditions). I've gone to bed hungry before. I just wake up with a good appetite for breakfast.
One of the biggest learnings I had in weight management -- hunger isn't harmful. It can be annoying and it can be distracting and most of us don't want to let it go on too long because it can lead to bad choices. But if I'm about to go to sleep, it's really not an issue for me.5 -
janejellyroll wrote: »I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but next time you're having a hunger pang at night just ... don't eat. In fact, don't eat anything at all until the next morning. If you can stomach that (so to speak) for a week or two, you may find yourself part of the teeming horde that has done away entirely with nighttime snacking by simply not eating.
Once the brain and body figure out there's no food coming, they mostly stop being whiny about it.
This is the whole secret of IF - your mind and body adjust to periods when they're not gonna get fed and largely quit protesting. And then ... you're free. It's very liberating, and great for weight loss.
The key is to not give in. Be firm and don't let stomach juices make the rules. You make the rules.
If you decide you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to snacking. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a few more ounces during this test.
Yeah, unless your hunger is interfering with your ability to sleep, there is absolutely no harm that is going to come to someone because they're going to bed hungry (barring specific health conditions). I've gone to bed hungry before. I just wake up with a good appetite for breakfast.
One of the biggest learnings I had in weight management -- hunger isn't harmful. It can be annoying and it can be distracting and most of us don't want to let it go on too long because it can lead to bad choices. But if I'm about to go to sleep, it's really not an issue for me.
I'm one of those people where if I'm hungry, I struggle to fall asleep and an more likely to wake during the night. But I know other people who use that feeling of starting to get hungry as their reminder it's time to go to bed. So it's certainly worth trying out the possibility that it's something you can move past, especially if saving calories means you are hungrier all day or feeling deprived!5 -
I always save calories for an evening snack but I can still find myself hungry. I go to bed a lot feeling hunger but it doesn't stop me from sleeping. Plus I find the next morning I'm not famished so I think the hunger feelings can be overcome - mind over matter etc.2
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Exactly! I agree 1000000 %.
We Of A Certain BMI (mine was 47 when I started dieting, so ... pretty chunky) have a very direct, immediate response to hunger pangs. "I am hungry" -> must eat food.
As though something terrible would happen if the hunger pang was just allowed to ride. It's weird, because a thousand other little things happen to the body now and then and we're like "Oh, I'll keep an eye on that" or "Eh, I'll just ignore that" but as soon as we feel that little hunger signal in the pit of the stomach, it's like "FOOD. NOW."
When I started intermittent fasting in May, it was really the first time in my life that I was genuinely hungry without attempting to squash that feeling a.s.a.p. with food. I would eat dinner at 7 pm and then basically starve myself until the next morning, and the first few days were challenging. My mind and body were screaming for food. I toughed it out.
What I learned is, if you are hungry and don't eat, you don't turn into a pumpkin and you don't even necessarily get more hungry. In fact, the hunger pangs would pass and then I wouldn't be hungry At. All. And over a few weeks I stopped being hungry at all during the entire time I had assigned to Not-Eating: 7pm - 11 am. During that time, I had, and continue to have, virtually no appetite, and no interest in food. I cannot describe what a sea change that is for me.
I am not saying this would work for everyone. I'm not even saying it'd work for most people. But even if it'd work for 1/4 of the people, or 1/8th, I think it's a worthy thing to try for a week or two. Why? Because there is no cost. The worst thing that can happen is you feel a little hungry, lose an extra pound, and decide it's not for you.
I am a person who was ravenously hungry pretty much every hour of every day for my entire life. I was constantly eating and constantly hungry, and that is why, at peak, I was wearing jeans with a 50 inch waist. I'm pretty sure this fasting thing was the first time in my life I ever went serious stretches of time without food and I was stunned and amazed to learn that hunger pangs are temporary and the body (or brain, or whatever) will give up the fight if you just ignore their whining. 10 or 15 minutes later - no hunger pangs, and no calories consumed. But it did take a few weeks for everything to get retrained to be at that point. I am not saying this discovery occurs in 5 minutes, more like it develops over a few weeks, at least for me.
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janejellyroll wrote: »I'm surprised no one has suggested this, but next time you're having a hunger pang at night just ... don't eat. In fact, don't eat anything at all until the next morning. If you can stomach that (so to speak) for a week or two, you may find yourself part of the teeming horde that has done away entirely with nighttime snacking by simply not eating.
Once the brain and body figure out there's no food coming, they mostly stop being whiny about it.
This is the whole secret of IF - your mind and body adjust to periods when they're not gonna get fed and largely quit protesting. And then ... you're free. It's very liberating, and great for weight loss.
The key is to not give in. Be firm and don't let stomach juices make the rules. You make the rules.
If you decide you don't like that or it doesn't work for you, you can always go back to snacking. The worst thing that can happen is you lose a few more ounces during this test.
Yeah, unless your hunger is interfering with your ability to sleep, there is absolutely no harm that is going to come to someone because they're going to bed hungry (barring specific health conditions). I've gone to bed hungry before. I just wake up with a good appetite for breakfast.
One of the biggest learnings I had in weight management -- hunger isn't harmful. It can be annoying and it can be distracting and most of us don't want to let it go on too long because it can lead to bad choices. But if I'm about to go to sleep, it's really not an issue for me.
I'm one of those people where if I'm hungry, I struggle to fall asleep and an more likely to wake during the night. But I know other people who use that feeling of starting to get hungry as their reminder it's time to go to bed. So it's certainly worth trying out the possibility that it's something you can move past, especially if saving calories means you are hungrier all day or feeling deprived!
Yes, I can't go to sleep hungry or hunger will wake me up and ruin my next day, so I budget for a bed time snack. I'm playing around with foods that will fill me up for less calories.1 -
Sophi_allheart wrote: »So I get home around 5 and eat dinner. I feel fine, then somewhere around 9pm I start craving a snack. It's very easy to walk to the convenience store near my house and buy a candy bar or bag of chips, etc. What are some tips I could follow to help with late night munchies, so I can hit my calorie goal and actually lose weight?
spread your calorie allotment more evenly over the course of the day.
breakfast , lunch and dinner are just labels for eating events.
imo, you can eat what you want, when you want. I expect you already know that to lose weight is just to eat fewer calories than you burn through activity.
gooid luck!
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I would be hungry after such an early dinner - so I would eat dinner later or have a snack. But when I get late night munchies shortly after eating and I am not really legitimately hungry my new trick is drinking some herbal tea (I LOVE stash cinnamon apple chamomile with a little bit of honey added).2
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@lgfrie
Great post just above.
Hunger is temporary.
So true. Well done for figuring it out and for putting it to words so well. Hunger Does Pass. It's merely an adaptation to habit and/or time. I'm in no danger of actual starvation in a First World country. I can go to bed when I've eaten my XXXX amount for the day, regardless of "feeling" hungry.
Feelings aren't facts. After years of giving myself food at every thought of food I also found myself at BMI Obese.
Never again. Not on my watch.
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Go to bed. One of my best tactics during weight loss was to go to sleep so I didn't feel hungry. Only occasionally was I actually hungry enough to feel I needed to eat.4
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For me nightly snacks are more of a habit than hunger. Unfortunately, once that door opens, i want to try a little bit of everything in the house. Sometimes it's a few hours after dinner and I'm legit hungry, but most of the time i have dinner late, but still looking forward to snacks. I love my nightly treats too much. So my strategy is to have a small taste of everything I'm going to have, and after I'm done with sampling my treats i go to brush my teeth and that takes care of cravings. I also drink a couple of cups of nice herbal tea, but that's because i love tea but have to cut caffeine vat some point in the evening. There are days when I'm considering what @lgfrie suggested, which is a way to break the habit and probably build a better one. But for me it probably won't work, i prefer to learn moderation rather than abstain and i have already created a new habit of not having any snacks during the day, so i definitely have room for it. Everyone is different, try a new way, find what works for you, @Sophi_allheart .0
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